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Do Greens and crossbenchers who claim that transparency and 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 <br> <br> arguments 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 <br> <br> 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 any party can spend at an election - actually <br> <br> less than the major parties currently spend.<br> <br> <br> <br> The proposed new laws also include lower disclosure thresholds for <br> <br> donations, 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 <br> <br> influence election outcomes - and the extent to <br> <br> which they can use their wealth at all will be limited.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The bill will further improve transparency by also increasing the speed and frequency that disclosures of donations need to be made.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> At present we have the absurd situation in which donations get made - but you only <br> <br> find out the details of who has given what to whom many months later, well after elections are won and lost.<br> <br> <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 wealthy.<br> <br> <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 'not <br> <br> 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 rort, not reform'. Teal independent ACT <br> <br> senator David Pocock (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 under the current rules, <br> <br> will need to disclose having done so. And how much they can donate will be capped.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Yet the Greens and Teals have quickly condemned the proposed new <br> <br> laws, labeling them a 'stitch-up', 'outrageous' and 'a rort, not a reform'. <br> <br> <br> <br> They have lost their collective minds after <br> <br> finding out that Labor's proposal just might secure the support of the opposition.<br> <br> <br> <br> I had to double check who was criticising what exactly 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 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 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.<br> <br> Put simply, the Greens and Teals doth protest too <br> <br> much on this issue.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Labor is thought to be trying to muscle out major <br> <br> political 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 <br> <br> 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 <br> <br> pictured)<br> <br> <br> <br> The major parties have long complained about the <br> <br> influence the likes of Simon Holmes à Court wields behind the <br> <br> scenes amongst the Teals. <br> <br> <br> <br> And we know the Greens have taken massive donations <br> <br> from the wealthy in the past, contrary to their irregular calls to <br> <br> tighten donations rules.<br> <br> <br> <br> Now that tangible change has been proposed, these bastions of virtue are running a <br> <br> mile from reforms that will curtail dark art of political donations.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The Labor government isn't even seeking for these transparency rules to take effect immediately,<br> <br> by the way. It won't be some sort of quick-paced power play before the next election designed to catch the <br> <br> crossbench out.<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 the <br> <br> 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 proposed design which would <br> <br> 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 get these proposed laws implemented, the crossbench should offer their support, not <br> <br> cynical opposition, to what is 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> <br> <br> To not do so exposes their utter hypocrisy and blowhard false commentary about <br> <br> being in politics to 'clean things up'.<br> <br> <br> <br> Review my homepage; จัดดอกไม้งานขาว ดํา - http://Dosaaf.Shadr.ru/user/MeaganFortin/
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