Electoral System and Political Parties-What you had to say
Further in the series- Issues raised in Submissions on Draft National Action Plan
Commitment 4.1 Confidence in electoral system and political parties
Political donation reform is high on everyone’s list-a general feeling that government is proposing nothing more than ‘wait and see’ what comes out of a parliamentary inquiry.
From the PM&C round up:
Justin Warren PivotNine (consultancy)
Most important aspect is that of donations to political parties. Technology element is distracting. Disclosure of donations should be made in real time so they can be scrutinised as they happen. Should be published in machine readable format.
Those departing political office should also be legally prevented from taking up a position with an entity they were responsible for overseeing. The current code-of-conduct system is too easily exploited. The Corporations Act 2001 section 307C and the APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants could be used to inform a legal requirement to guard against conflicts of interest when leaving public office.
Angus King Switched on Solar!
Would be more convenient if votes could be entered on a marked card and fed through something like the TAB mark sense readers. Election results would be available as soon as polls closed. The electoral commission could use similar tech, or perhaps OCR to register people’s votes.
Exposure of donations to political parties along with lobbying activities are important indicators as to the influences our parliamentarians are subject to. The relationship between the parliament and the public service seems to have diverted away from the Westminster model towards a more American model where senior appointments are more political in nature. This makes it more difficult for the public service to give indpeendent and impartial advice.
John Hyde Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption
Recommend specifically including issue of eligibility and disqualification of candidates for elections.
Clarity/definitions regarding bankruptcy, conviction and charges is needed so that the community and genuine political candidates can understand the standards required of them.
Jose Marin OGP Anti-Corruption Working Group
Can be strengthened by specifying what is the expected change or measure to improve transparency and accountability of political parties.
Neil Freestone Individual
Australia should move to a system where disclosure of political donations becomes unnecessary – by regulating all the entities that undertake campaign activities. There are two options:
1. A referral of powers from the States to the Cth over all matters relating to elections and electoral funding.
2. Constitutional change, with a ‘code’ that contains rules on what is and isn’t allowed in terms of political donations, including yearly caps, processes, and permitted doners.
Tim Smith (2) Accountability Round Table (2)
The current ‘framework of donations to political parties and other political entities’ is neither accountable nor transparent. It also denies access to relevant information, and must be reformed. Australia’s existing regime enables undue influence by those with the capacity to donate large sums of money to political parties, associated entities and third parties – and gives access to political decision-makers to those who are able to pay for that access.
The ethical and common-law principle that public office is a public trust, and thus those engaged in discharging that public trust must always place the public interest ahead of any personal or private interests.
Recommends reforms in relation to:
– bans on certain classes of donors
– caps on donations
– disclosure issues: thresholds and real-time disclosure of donations
– third party entities and associated entities
– public funding
– limits on campaign spending
Steering Committee of the Australian Open Government Partnership Network
Lift the ambition from commitment to ‘investigate’ to ‘ensuring public confidence in Australia’s electoral system is strengthened’.
Should include a commitment to real time disclosure of donation to political parties, individual candidates, members of parliament and election campaigns.
Disclosures should be:
– real time (currently one publication of donations per year and up to 18 months after the fact)
– above a low specified level, e.g. $1000 in total per year.
Karen Burgess The BubbleGum Club
Voting rights for people with disabilities should be addressed before the next election.
Dr Madeleine Roberts
Divulging of business interests, tax records, donations to organisations, membership of lobby or special interest groups and affiliations with NGOs and other corporate entities must be conducted in real time.
Public officials’ official diaries should also be published in real time.
Members of both houses should be required to abandon dual citizenships, and must be officially verified before they are allowed to take their seat.
Does not support electronic voting without transparency and oversight- look to the US example since the introduction of computer based voting which has resulted in opportunity for manipulation, obstruction and invalidation of votes.
Adding ABNs/ACNs to AEC donation data is necessary for implementation.
Should also consider how to prevent the parties from establishing legitimate Australian entities to funnel foreign donations. The system should be aimed at financial transparency, to look at how money moves through the system, as well as how taxes are being spent by government.
Evelyn Doyle Individual (2)
• Electoral reform which would include changes to political donations where at least the minimum requirement should be immediate disclosures.
• Tighten rules around parliamentary entitlements to include a body (separate to Finance) to oversight use of travel and other entitlements with punitive measures for repeat and overt offenders.
• Ensure that on bodies such as the Remuneration Tribunal are not stacked with ex-corporate executives but include representatives from community and civil groups.
• Open diaries for elected politicians is also an important reform that would improve transparency around who is influencing governments.
Rosie Williams Individual
Adding ABN/ACN to AEC donations data is required for implementation.
Peter Bennett Individual
Politicians and political parties are not held to the same standards of conduct and accountability that they impose on the community.
There must be a clear statement at the outset about the mechanisms the parliament/government has established or intends to establish to ensure integrity, transparency and accountability of the political process at all political levels.
Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer Pirate Party
A periodically-updated online database managed by the AEC and allowing members of the public to search by party, candidate, donor and amount would be inexpensive to implement and provide a significant improvement in transparency.
Could introduce a requirement for incorporated bodies to submit to the AEC the names of board members who approved donations.
Natasha Molt Law Council of Australia
Any review conducted by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters should consider issues relating to voting and political donations across all levels of Australian government and should not be limited to the 2016 Federal election.
John Hyde
The issue of eligibility and disqualification of candidates for elections needs to be more defined. Clarity regarding bankruptcy, conviction and charges definitions is needed so as the high standards of integrity that the community and genuine candidates aspire to is easily understood and promoted.