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Political DonationsTell the government to get corporate and third-party influence out of politics and end all large scale political donations. Our democracy should not be for sale but right now the people we elect to govern us take money from those who stand to gain from government policy and contracts. Small donations towards a political cause can be empowering and most importantly don't have an undue influence on public policy. It's time to restore faith in our political system - sign the petition to end corporate influence. Dear Prime Minister, State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers,You work for us - end large scale political donations and ban all corporate and third-party political donations. 45,939 have joined this campaign - help us get to 30,000.  We have achieved 153.13% of our goal. Let’s keep going! More information about this campaignHow does the system work now?What are we calling for? Do donations really give donors undue influence? Does this mean union donations to parties would be banned too? What is the Federal Government doing about political donations? Where does the Liberal Party stand? What effect will this have on parties? And what about minor parties? Wouldn’t this lead to the establishment of ‘front’ organisations? What about third-party organisations like GetUp? Why not cap expenditure rather than donations? How do donation caps work in other countries? Won’t there always be loopholes? How does the system work now?
For a full list of major donors to the Federal Labor and Liberal parties in 2007/8, click here. Click here to sign the petition What are we calling for?We think it’s time to get the undue influence of big donors out of our democracy.Here are the four principles that underlie this campaign: Only individuals should be allowed to donate to political parties. Donating is a great form of political expression – but it shouldn't be an expense required to gain access. When corporations and other organisations donate large sums to political parties it makes the rest of us feel that we can’t trust our elected representatives – after all ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’. If people really are passionate about contributing to a party, they would still be able to do so under their own name. Increasing transparency requirements. We also need to increase transparency of individual donations to make sure corporate money isn’t being funnelled through individual donations instead. This means individual donors who give more than a certain threshold (we propose $500) would have to disclose the name of their employer. Capping individual donations at a reasonable limit. Donating is a legitimate means of political engagement – GetUp is a great example of that. But there should be reasonable limits. Individual donations should be capped at $1,000 a year to prevent anyone having undue influence on our representatives. It’s important that we also have strong laws that protect against ‘smurfing’ – the practice of splitting donations amongst a group of people. Increase public funding of elections and parties. Parties have become reliant on big donors to fund their campaigns and operations. If we are to eliminate the influence of corporate donations on politics, more public funding will have to be provided to parties. Depending on the system used and the level of funding, this is estimated to cost in the vicinity of $30 million dollars. This may sound like a lot, but international studies have shown that public funding has a positive effect on political competitiveness and decision-making. Given that the policies and private contracts our politicians oversee add up to tens of billions of dollars, we think paying a little more to make sure those decisions are free from undue influence is a good investment. The legislation required to make this happen will require a lot of thought and research – but the principles are simple. Caps on political donations are working well in other democracies around the world and we deserve no less in Australia. Click here to sign the petition Do donations really give donors undue influence?As the Government’s recent Green Paper stated:"The perception of undue influence can be as damaging to democracy as undue influence itself. It undermines confidence in our processes of government, making it difficult to untangle the motivation behind policy decisions. Electors are left wondering if decisions have been made on their merits."2Big donations certainly undermine our trust in Australia’s democracy, and in our elected representatives. That’s exactly why we need to stop them, rather than simply making them more transparent. Click here to sign the petition Why shouldn’t corporations be allowed to donate to parties?Donations are a valid and important way of supporting a party you believe in, but when big donors make out cheques for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, it undermines our trust in our representatives. Many corporate donors also contribute to both major parties, which seems to indicate that their donations are not ideologically or altruistically intentioned. Indeed one study found that 9 out of the top 10 ASX listed donors gave to both major parties3. If individuals who own companies really are passionate about contributing to a party, they would still be able to do so under their own name.Click here to sign the petition Does this mean union donations to parties would be banned too?Yes. Unions have a proud history of engaging Australians in politics, and important affiliations with the Labor Party. Unions should be able to campaign and express their political affiliations. Importantly, union members would still be able to contribute to political parties individually and through affiliation fees.Click here to sign the petition What is the Federal Government doing about political donations?Since coming into office, the Federal Government has released a Green Paper outlining a series of proposed reforms to political donations and electoral law. These include banning donations from non-Australian citizens, reducing the disclosure threshold from $10,900 back to $1,000 and tightening timelines for disclosure. The Coalition have blocked the legislation, saying they are “piecemeal reforms which only serve to en-trench Labor’s strong position with regard to donations”4.The Government’s proposals focus on increasing transparency. Transparency is a good start – but it’s not the answer. It’s not enough just to know about donors’ undue influence – it should be stopped. Click here to sign the petition Where does the Liberal Party stand?Malcolm Turnbull, is personally on the record supporting a ban on corporate donations. His personal submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters in 2005 states:“Under our system of democracy only individuals can vote or stand for parliament. I propose that the law be changed so as to provide that only individuals can financially contribute to political campaigns”5This is a great start. But unless we also implement an annual cap on political donations from individuals, it could in fact be damaging. The last thing we want is a corporate donor funnelling big donations through individuals – that would reduce transparency. That’s why it’s crucial that we also place a limit on the amount an individual is allowed to donate each year – so that no individual or corporation can use big cheques to exert undue influence on our representatives. Click here to sign the petition What effect will this have on parties?It’s important that politicians have enough funding to effectively communicate with the public. That’s why when we cap political donations, we also need to increase public funding to political parties in a way that’s transparent and fair.Reforming political donations will be great for political parties! Parties are at their best when they have a broad and active membership with real buy-in to the movement. Removing big donors will give parties an incentive to engage their grassroots membership in more and deeper ways. With party membership falling across Australia, this can only be a healthy development. The Internet now makes it easier than ever to engage a large constituency in political fundraising. We need only look at the Barack Obama presidential campaign to see how powerful a campaign can be when it’s funded and powered by small donors. Voters have proven that they are willing to engage in politics through individual small dollar donations. Click here to sign the petition And what about minor parties?The two major parties are the major beneficiaries of the current system – not surprising considering they wrote the laws. In 2006/2007 political parties received approx. $42.4million in donations over $10,500 (we have no way of telling how much they received in donations under that amount): the ALP, Liberal and National parties accounted for approx. $41.7million or 98.3% of those donations1.Click here to sign the petition Wouldn’t this lead to the establishment of ‘front’ organisations?It’s very important that we don’t ban big donations to political parties, only to have them flow to opaque organisations set up to run advertisements on politicians’ behalf (such as the infamous Swiftboat Veterans for Truth group in the United States). However these organisations are not a necessary corollary of donation caps. We need to tighten accountability and regulation of all third parties to make sure the system isn’t abused. Having the AEC collect information such as a donor’s employer will help ensure any abuses of this system are clear. The difficulty in dealing with efforts to circumvent the system should be no barrier to or excuse for us not fixing a broken system by banning corporate donations.Click here to sign the petition What about third-party organisations like GetUp?What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Third-party organisations need to be regulated and should not be allowed to donate to political parties. Already GetUp, and other organisations active around elections, have rigorous reporting requirements to both the AEC and ASIC.Transparency and accountability is the key to ensuring parties don’t use other groups to run their campaigns on their behalf. Click here to sign the petition Why not cap expenditure rather than donations?Some people suggest a cap on political expenditure, rather than a cap on political donations – tackling the problem from a demand rather than a supply side. This approach isn’t without merit, but here’s why we think capping donations is more pressing:
Click here to sign the petition How do donation caps work in other countries?There are a number of international examples of contribution caps and bans on corporate and third-party donations.In Canada only individuals are permitted to donate to political parties and candidates, and contributions are capped per year at $1100 to each registered party, $1100 (in total) to various entities of each party, $1100 to each independent candidate and $1100 in total to party leadership contestants. France too has both a ban on donations from corporations and other organisations – only individuals may contribute, and donations are capped at 4600 Euro. Parties and candidates also have a spending cap of 15.5million Euro, and are not permitted to purchase television, radio or outdoor advertising. Click here to sign the petition Won’t there always be loopholes?There are plenty of loopholes in the current system, and it’s a fair bet that there will be loopholes in future systems too. A similar ‘catch all’ provision to the tax system that outlaws all arrangements contrived for the purpose of circumventing electoral law could be of assistance in providing the stick necessary to stop invidiuals breaking the law. This isn’t the case at the moment – just one more reason why we need a people-powered movement to push for change.References1Australian Electoral Commission 'Political Party Returns By Related Party Grouping - 2007/2008'.NB: these figures only includes donations over denominations of $10,500 (as these are the only donations disclosed), and may include donations between branches of the same party. 2Senator John Faulkner, ‘Message from Special Minister of State in Electoral Refrom Green Paper: Donations, Funding and Expenditure’ December 2008, p. 2. 3Ramsay, G Stapledon and J Vernon, ‘Political Donations by Australian Companies’, Federal Law Review, vol. 29, 2001. 4Christopher Pyne MP, ‘House of Representatives Official Hansard’, No. 5, 2009, 16/03/2009, 12:03pm. 5Malcolm Turnbull MP, ‘Submission to Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters’, 11 August 2005. 6Geys, B., ‘Explaining voter turnout: A review of aggregate-level research’, Electoral Studies 25(4): 637-663. 7Baek, M., ‘A Comparative Analysis of Political Communication Systems and Voter Turnout’ American Journal of Poltical Science 53(2): 376 - 393. 8Dr Anne Twomey, ‘The reform of political donations, expenditure and funding’, November 2008 |
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