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Do Greens and crossbenchers who claim that transparency and integrity is at the heart of their reason for entering Parliament in the first place hear themselves?<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> In the past few days they have mounted self-serving arguments against proposed electoral reforms that the <br> <br> major parties look set to come together to support.<br> <br> <br> <br> The reforms include caps for how much money wealthy individuals can donate,<br> <br> caps on the amount candidates can spend in individual electorates to <br> <br> prevent the equivalent of an arms race, and a $90million limit on what <br> <br> any party can spend at an election - actually less than the major parties currently spend.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The proposed new laws also include lower disclosure thresholds for donations, <br> <br> thus increasing the transparency of who makes political donations in the first place.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> So the wealthy wont be able to hide behind anonymity while using their cash to influence election outcomes - and the extent to which <br> <br> they can use their wealth at all will be limited.<br> <br> <br> <br> The bill will further improve transparency by also increasing <br> <br> the speed and frequency that disclosures of donations need to be made.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> At present we have the absurd situation in which donations <br> <br> get made - but you only find out the details of who has given what to whom many months later, well after elections are <br> <br> won and lost.<br> <br> <br> <br> In other words, what is broadly being proposed will result in much greater transparency <br> <br> and far less big money being injected into campaigning by the wealthy.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Teal Kylea Tink claimed the major parties were 'running scared' <br> <br> with the policy and warned the reform would 'not stop the rot' <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Greens senate leader Larissa Waters (left) fired a warning shot - saying <br> <br> if it serves only the major parties 'it's a rort, not reform'. Teal independent ACT senator David Pocock <br> <br> (right) said: 'What seems to be happening is a major-party stitch-up'<br> <br> <br> <br> Anyone donating more than $1,000 to a political party, as opposed to $16,000 <br> <br> under the current rules, will need to disclose having done <br> <br> so. And how much they can donate will be capped.<br> <br> <br> <br> Yet the Greens and Teals have quickly condemned the proposed new laws, labeling them a 'stitch-up', 'outrageous' and 'a rort,<br> <br> not a reform'. <br> <br> <br> <br> They have lost their collective minds after finding out that Labor's proposal just might secure the support of <br> <br> the opposition.<br> <br> <br> <br> <u><b>I had to double check who was criticising what <br> <br> exactly before even starting to write this column.</b></u><br> <br> <br> <br> Because I had assumed - incorrectly - that these important <br> <br> transparency measures stamping out the influence of the wealthy must have been proposed by <br> <br> the virtue-signalling Greens or the corruption-fighting Teals, in a united crossbench effort to drag the major parties closer to accountability.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <b>More fool me.</b><br> <br> <br> <br> The bill, designed to clean up a rotten system, is being put forward by <br> <br> Labor and is opposed by a growing cabal of crossbenchers.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> It makes you wonder what they have to hide. Put simply, <br> <br> the Greens and Teals doth protest too much on this issue.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <u>Labor is thought to be trying to muscle out major political donors such as <br> <br> Clive Palmer</u><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <u><i>Another potential target of the laws is businessman and Teal <br> <br> funder Simon Holmes à Court</i></u><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The Greens have taken massive donations in the <br> <br> past, contrary to their irregular calls to tighten donations rules (Greens <br> <br> leader Adam Bandt and Senator Mehreen Faruqi are pictured)<br> <br> <br> <br> The major parties have long complained about the influence the likes of Simon Holmes à Court wields behind <br> <br> the scenes amongst the Teals. <br> <br> <br> <br> And we know the Greens have taken massive donations from the wealthy in the <br> <br> past, contrary to their irregular calls to tighten donations rules.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Now that tangible change has been proposed, these bastions of virtue are running a mile from reforms that will <br> <br> curtail dark art of political donations.<br> <br> <br> <br> The Labor government isn't even seeking for these <br> <br> transparency rules to take effect immediately, by the way.<br> <br> It won't be some sort of quick-paced power play before the next election designed to catch the crossbench out.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> They are aiming for implementation by 2026, giving everyone enough time to absorb and understand <br> <br> the changes before preparing for them.<br> <br> <br> <br> Don't get me wrong, no deal has yet been done between Labor and the Coalition. I imagine <br> <br> the opposition want to go over the laws with a fine tooth comb.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> As they should - because it certainly isn't beyond Labor to include hidden one-party advantages in the proposed design which would create loopholes only the unions are capable of taking advantage of,<br> <br> therefore disadvantaging the Coalition electorally in the years to <br> <br> come.<br> <br> <br> <br> But short of such baked-in trickiness scuttling a deal to <br> <br> get these proposed laws implemented, the crossbench should offer their support, <br> <br> not cynical opposition, to what is being advocated for.<br> <br> <br> <br> <u><strong>They might even be able to offer something worthwhile that could be incorporated in the package.</strong></u><br> <br> <br> <br> To not do so exposes their utter hypocrisy and blowhard false commentary about being <br> <br> in politics to 'clean things up'.<br> <br> <br> <br> My site :: <a href="http://it-Viking.ch/index.php/Nine_Components_That_Affect_%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B9%E0%B8%9B%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B5%E0%B8%94%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A1%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B5%E0%B8%A2%E0%B9%83%E0%B8%88">ค่าพวงหรีด กรมสรรพากร</a>
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