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Do Greens and crossbenchers who claim that transparency and <br> <br> integrity is at the heart of their reason for entering <br> <br> Parliament in the first place hear themselves?<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> In the past few days they have mounted self-serving arguments <br> <br> against proposed electoral reforms that the major parties look set to come together to support.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The reforms include caps for how much money wealthy individuals can donate, caps on the amount candidates can spend in individual electorates to prevent <br> <br> 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, thus increasing <br> <br> the transparency of who makes political donations in the first place.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> So the wealthy wont be able to hide behind anonymity while using their cash to influence election outcomes - <br> <br> and the extent to which they can use their wealth at all will be limited.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The bill will further improve transparency by also increasing the speed and frequency that <br> <br> disclosures of donations need to be made.<br> <br> <br> <br> At present we have the absurd situation in which donations 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 and far <br> <br> less big money being injected into campaigning by the <br> <br> wealthy.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Teal Kylea Tink claimed the major parties were 'running scared' with the policy and warned the reform would <br> <br> '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 if it serves only the major parties 'it's a <br> <br> rort, not reform'. Teal independent ACT senator David Pocock (right) <br> <br> 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 under the current rules, will need to disclose having done so.<br> <br> 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 <br> <br> them a 'stitch-up', 'outrageous' and 'a rort, not a reform'. <br> <br> <br> <br> They have lost their collective minds after finding out that Labor's proposal just might <br> <br> secure the support of the opposition.<br> <br> <br> <br> I had to double check who was criticising what exactly <br> <br> before even starting to write this column.<br> <br> <br> <br> Because I had assumed - incorrectly - that these important transparency measures stamping out the influence of the wealthy must have been proposed by the virtue-signalling Greens or <br> <br> the corruption-fighting Teals, in a united crossbench effort to <br> <br> drag the major parties closer to accountability.<br> <br> <br> <br> More fool me.<br> <br> <br> <br> The bill, designed to clean up a rotten system, is being put forward <br> <br> by 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, the Greens <br> <br> and Teals doth protest too much on this issue.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Labor is thought to be trying to muscle out major political <br> <br> donors such as Clive Palmer<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Another potential target of the laws is businessman and Teal funder Simon Holmes à Court<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The Greens have taken massive donations in the past, contrary to their <br> <br> irregular calls to tighten donations rules (Greens leader Adam Bandt and Senator Mehreen Faruqi are pictured)<br> <br> <br> <br> The major parties have long complained about the influence <br> <br> the likes of Simon Holmes à Court wields behind 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 <br> <br> rules.<br> <br> <br> <br> Now that tangible change has been proposed, these bastions of virtue are <br> <br> running a mile from reforms that will curtail dark art of political donations.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The Labor government isn't even seeking for these transparency rules to take <br> <br> effect immediately, by the way. 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> <br> <br> They are aiming for implementation by 2026, giving <br> <br> everyone enough time to absorb and understand the changes before preparing for them.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Don't get me wrong, no deal has yet been done between Labor and <br> <br> the Coalition. I imagine the opposition want to go over the laws with a fine tooth comb.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> As they should - because it certainly isn't beyond Labor to include hidden one-party advantages in the <br> <br> proposed design which would create loopholes only the unions are capable of taking advantage of, therefore disadvantaging the <br> <br> Coalition electorally in the years to come.<br> <br> <br> <br> But short of such baked-in trickiness scuttling <br> <br> a deal to get these proposed laws implemented, the crossbench should <br> <br> offer their support, not cynical opposition, to what is <br> <br> being advocated for.<br> <br> <br> <br> They might even be able to offer something worthwhile that could be incorporated in the package.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> To not do so exposes their utter hypocrisy and blowhard false commentary about being in politics to 'clean things up'.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> my blog post พวงหรีดใกล้ฉัน - http://Old.Amerit.ORG.Mk/question/ever-heard-about-excessive-%e0%b8%88%e0%b8%b1%e0%b8%94%e0%b8%94%e0%b8%ad%e0%b8%81%e0%b9%84%e0%b8%a1%e0%b9%89%e0%b8%ab%e0%b8%b2%e0%b8%87%e0%b8%99%e0%b8%81%e0%b8%a2%e0%b8%b9%e0%b8%87-effectively-about/
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