$1k donor disclosure call

LABOR and the Greens want donations of $1000 to be made public under a shake up to the state’s political donation laws.

They also want spending caps introduced, arguing the proposed reforms do not go far enough.

Shadow attorney-general Ella Haddad said there needed to be significant amendments to the Electoral Disclosure and Funding Bill and spending caps introduced for election campaigns.

“I would encourage the government to look at the spending caps that apply in the ACT and look to putting caps in for parties, candidates, third party campaigners that meet community expectation,” Ms Haddad, above, said.

In Tasmania only donations above $14,300 need to be publicly disclosed, and under the proposed reforms that will be dropped to $5000.

Labor also wants the timeframe for disclosure of donations outside of an election period reduced to one month instead of six months, and public donations disclosure to be publicly available for at least a full parliamentary term.

“This is our chance to actually do it and do it right, clean up Tasmanian politics and make sure politics is a battle of ideas not a battle of bank accounts,” Ms Haddad said.

She said cumulative donations of $1000 was a reasonable place for disclosure, instead of requiring every donation to be made public.

“There is also an administrative role to play here and the Bill quite rightly puts forward quite serious offences if parties and candidates fail to comply with the new law so they do need to be workable,” she said.

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said the draft legislation was a step in the right direction, but Tasmania would still have the weakest donations laws in the country if the Bill was to pass in its current form.

“What we are seeing here is a half-baked attempt that would advantage the major parties, in particular the Liberals,” Ms O’Connor said.

“We are arguing that there should be a cap on candidate expenditure of $81,000 and cap on parties of $810,000 and that go up incrementally year on year.”

Greens want a cap of $3000 introduced for donations from any individual or entity within a term and further restrictions on foreign donations.

Labor has steered away from criticising changes that will see political parties receive $6 per first preference vote in public funding if they receive at least 4 per cent of the vote.

Independent MHA Kristie Johnston has said it would unfairly advantage the major parties.

The Greens want the amount lowered to the Commonwealth level of $2.87 per vote and the requirement to receive 4 per cent of the vote removed to ensure all candidates are able to be reimbursed.

The government has said it is delivering on its commitment to introduce a more transparent and modern political donation disclosure scheme.