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Mar

22

Changes loom for donations made to parties…

Filed Under Australian Politics, State Government

During John Howard’s reign of terror when he gained absolute control of the Senate he changed the rules around disclosure of political donations. Mr Howard increased the non-disclosure rate from $1,500 per donation to $10,000 per donation. This would then allow any single party to donate $89,991 during any one year. Quoting Mr Howard from the 4th October 2005:

“With the passage of time obviously changes in money values, the last time the disclosure figure was set was more than 10 years ago.”

Now the Howard reign of terror is over Prime Minister Rudd is going to reverse that decision, in fact he wants to lower the non-disclosure amount to $1,000. He’s quoted from an appearance on the ABC television show 7:30 Report:

“You’ve got to be very worried about whether a democracy ends up being up for sale.”

However Prime Minister Rudd has to cross paths with NSW Premier Morris Iemma. Premier Iemma wants party’s campaigns to be entirely public funding which contests the moves by Mr Rudd.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has responded to Iemma’s comments by saying there needs to be one single national approach and a spokeswoman for Victorian Premier John Brumby says “Special Minister of State John Fawkner is looking at a consistent national approach to political donations.”

Given that all the States and the Federal government’s are Labor run let’s hope that Rudd gets his way and makes the non-disclosure ceiling value of $1,000 a national value.

PM forecasts changes to donation rules | ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
States at odds over donations ban call | ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Secret Donations to Political Parties | GetUp!

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