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