Perfect system impossible to devise

THE problem with electoral funding reform is that whatever you do, it presents a challenge for future generations to get around.

There are some good ideas and steps in the right direction contained in this report but the one thing you can be sure of is that, given the power and wealth of the development industry, they will look for ways of affecting government decision-making into the future.

What is really needed is a commitment from the candidates to be independent of their funding sources and represent the people who vote for them.

The idea of limiting the budget of campaigns is a good one, as is the proposal to use new technology to reveal funding sources as soon as possible.

Nothing beats an aware citizenry asking questions.

As for whether political parties should become a part of the Gold Coast local government political landscape, the issue for parties is how you maintain discipline.

In state and federal spheres, you have people with a lot at stake in developing their careers, whereas in local government this is not necessarily the case, nor the call for party unity.

The one thing we must be ready for is that in five to seven years we will likely be having this same conversation, whatever is done, because there will probably already be people looking at how to get around it.