Do Greens and crossbenchers who claim that transparency and integrity <br>
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is at the heart of their reason for entering Parliament in the first place <br>
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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, caps on the amount candidates can spend in individual electorates to prevent the <br>
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equivalent of an arms race, and a $90million limit on what <br>
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any party can spend at an election - 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 first place.<br>
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So the wealthy wont be able to hide behind anonymity while using their cash to influence <br>
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election outcomes - and the extent to which they can use their <br>
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wealth at all will be limited.<br>
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The bill will further improve transparency by 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 <br>
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get made - but you only find out the details of who has given what to whom many months later, well after elections are won and lost.<br>
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In other words, what is broadly being proposed will result <br>
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in much greater transparency and far less big money <br>
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being injected into campaigning by the wealthy.<br>
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Teal Kylea Tink claimed the major parties were 'running <br>
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scared' with the policy and warned the reform would 'not stop the rot' <br>
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Greens senate leader Larissa Waters (left) fired a warning shot - saying if it serves <br>
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only the major parties 'it's a rort, not reform'. Teal independent <br>
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ACT senator David Pocock (right) said: 'What seems to be happening is <br>
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a major-party stitch-up'<br>
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Anyone donating more than $1,000 to a political party,<br>
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as 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 <br>
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a '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 <br>
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just might secure the support of the opposition.<br>
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I had to double check who was criticising what exactly <br>
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before even starting to write this column.<br>
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Because I had assumed - incorrectly - that these important <br>
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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 <br>
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to drag the major parties closer to accountability.<br>
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More fool me.<br>
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The bill, designed to clean up a rotten system, is being put forward by Labor and is opposed by a growing cabal <br>
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of crossbenchers.<br>
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It makes you wonder what they have to hide. Put <br>
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simply, the Greens and Teals doth protest too <br>
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much on this issue.<br>
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Labor is thought to be trying to muscle out major political donors such as Clive Palmer<br>
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Another potential target of the laws is businessman and Teal funder <br>
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Simon Holmes à Court<br>
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The Greens have taken massive donations in the past, contrary <br>
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to their irregular calls to tighten donations rules (Greens leader Adam Bandt and Senator Mehreen Faruqi <br>
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are pictured)<br>
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The major parties have long complained about the influence the likes of Simon Holmes à <br>
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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, contrary to <br>
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their irregular calls to tighten donations rules.<br>
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Now that tangible change has been proposed, these bastions of <br>
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virtue are running a mile from reforms that will curtail dark art of political donations.<br>
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The Labor government isn't even seeking for these transparency rules to take effect immediately,<br>
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by the way. It won't be some sort of quick-paced power play before the next election designed <br>
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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 the <br>
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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. <br>
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I imagine the opposition want to 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 <br>
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advantages in the proposed design which would <br>
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create loopholes only the unions are capable of taking advantage of,<br>
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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 <br>
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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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They might even be able to offer something worthwhile that could <br>
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be incorporated in the package.<br>
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To not do so exposes their utter hypocrisy and blowhard false <br>
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commentary about being in politics to 'clean things up'.<br>
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Do Greens and crossbenchers