Media Release

Senator John Faulkner

10/2009
11 March 2009

Political Donations Bill Voted Down by Liberals

Today the Liberals voted down urgent measures to enhance the integrity and increase the transparency of our electoral system.

Voted down were measures to:

• lower the threshold for the disclosure of political donations and political expenditure to $1,000 – from the $10,900 index-linked threshold introduced by the Howard Government
• require six-monthly disclosure of donations and political expenditure, rather than just annual disclosure
• ban foreign donations
• ban anonymous donations over $50
• no longer allow donations to separate branches of the same party to be treated as separate donations for disclosure purposes, closing a loophole allowing multiple donations below the threshold to be hidden, and
• tie receipt of public funding for elections to verified electoral expenditure, so that candidates are not able to make a financial gain from public funding.

These measures are needed to clean up Australia’s political donations system. They are vital to the health of our democracy.

The Government is absolutely committed to ending the secrecy around donations.

The Liberals have never explained why they believe these reform measures are not a positive step towards a more open and accountable electoral system.

The Government will reintroduce this Bill into the House of Representatives at the earliest possible opportunity to progress these reforms.

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Media Contact:	Website:
Media Adviser - Colin Campbell - 0407 787 181	www.cabinetsecretary.gov.au www.smos.gov.au

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Last Updated: 9 June, 2009