But Mr Baird told Fairfax Media that the wildly disparate election funding laws between states, territories and the Commonwealth "creates opportunity for avoidance and potentially undermines any state system". "You can use the laws in one jurisdiction to basically provide donations into another": Kerry Schott. Credit:Sasha Woolley "Accordingly, it is appropriate to now consider co-ordinated national reform, including consistent disclosure obligations," he said. "We will therefore seek to put this issue on the COAG agenda later this year and look forward to discussing it with state and federal colleagues." Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten welcomed Mr Baird's proposal as "a good move".

A spokesman for Mr Abbott said the Commonwealth "has not received any proposal for the COAG to consider the issue of political donations". Mr Baird's push comes as Mr Abbott responded to revelations that Clubs NSW donated $20,000 to a fundraising body supporting his now defence minister Kevin Andrews as he led formulation of the Coalition's industry-backed poker machines policy before the 2013 election.



Mr Abbott noted that Clubs NSW has donated to "both political parties". "I notice that quite a large donation was made to the Labor Party shortly before the former Labor government reneged on the deal that it had done on poker machines with Andrew Wilkie," he said. In January 2012 then prime minister Julia Gillard announced that she would tear up a deal with the independent MP Mr Wilkie to introduce mandatory pre-commitment for poker machines. Mandatory pre-commitment, strongly opposed by registered clubs, forces pokie players to nominate how much they are prepared to lose before they begin gambling.

Australian Electoral Commission records for 2011-12 show that Clubs NSW disclosed a $5000 donation to the federal campaign of the NSW division of the ALP in July 2011. Clubs NSW then donated $44,000 to the federal ALP in April 2012. But Mr Shorten said Mr Abbott's argument was "absurd" and he was "clearly implying his defence minister's decisions are influenced by donations".



"By Mr Abbott's own argument, it's critical the Prime Minister and his Defence Minister now explain what influence donations have on their policies." Mr Andrews has denied the donations influenced his decision making as the Coalition's poker machines spokesman in opposition and Fairfax Media does not suggest otherwise. A Clubs NSW spokeswoman said all its donations are lawful and fully disclosed.

The push for uniform national laws is a key recommendation of an expert panel established by Mr Baird last year to advise on a comprehensive overhaul of NSW campaign finance laws following the ICAC hearings. Evidence at the hearings saw 10 of his MPs move to the crossbench and two resign from Parliament after admitting to taking $10,000 from property developers, who are banned from making political donations in NSW. The panel made sweeping recommendations on how to clean up NSW campaign finance rules and identified the different rules between state and federal governments as ripe for exploitation by political parties. "When you've got different laws in different jurisdictions, you can use the laws in one jurisdiction to basically provide donations into another where they [would] otherwise be prohibited," said panel chairwoman Kerry Schott. Dr Schott said the evidence uncovered about the Liberal and National party-aligned Free Enterprise Foundation illustrated the problem.

The ICAC heard property developers – banned donors in NSW – legally gave tens of thousands of dollars to the Free Enterprise Foundation as it was a federally registered body. In turn, the money was donated by the foundation to the NSW Liberals, in effect "washing" the donations to make them legal. She also noted that under federal laws there is no limit on how much money may be donated to a political party, MP or candidate and the threshold for public disclosure of political donations is over $13,000. This is in sharp contrast to NSW, where annual donation caps apply of $5000 to political parties and $2000 to MPs and candidates, and all donations above $1000 must be publicly disclosed. "You've got a system that, in the heat of an election fight, is very tempting for circumvention of laws," Dr Schott said.

Despite the recommendation, Dr Schott said achieving uniform national donations laws "will be very difficult, if not impossible. Because NSW has by far the tightest law in the land in these matters". with Mark Kenny