Australian democracy has been under threat for some time. There is a group of political operators who are able to walk the halls of parliament, arrange meetings with decision-makers at the drop of a hat, funnel big money into political parties, and influence regulations, policies and legislation. Nobody reading this will be surprised when I say that this group of powerful political operators comprises corporations and industry lobby groups.

However, unless you’ve been following the Turnbull government’s electoral funding and disclosure reform bill, you might be surprised to learn that apparently there is a bigger threat to democracy, a more powerful group of political operators in Australia – charities and community groups. That is the laughable idea the Turnbull government would have you believe.

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After years of donations scandals including the jailing of disgraced MPs; after witnessing the revolving door between powerful industries and MP and political staffer positions; and after over $1bn in political donations have been made – the government claims they’re finally listening to the people of Australia and addressing political donation reform.

Only, they’re not.

The Turnbull government is using the overwhelming public appetite for politics to be cleaned up as a smokescreen for pushing through legislation that will curtail the activities and voice of charities and community groups.

Tim Costello, the Human Rights Law Centre, the Hands Off Our Charities Coalition and many others have highlighted the disastrous consequences this legislation will have on our civil society if allowed to pass.

There is a glaring discrepancy in this bill. Not only does it act as a smokescreen for the government to attack civil society, it completely fails to address the actual, documented threat to our democratic system - big money.



The joint standing committee on electoral matters, of which I am a member, this week published its report on the bill. Significantly, the majority report recommends that a legislative framework should cover industry associations and businesses and not just charities and not for profits.

However, the Turnbull government has so far shown no inclination to make international capital flows through different business interests more transparent, or prohibit funds raised in majority foreign-owned businesses or industry lobby groups being used in political activities. This underscores their myopic interest in cracking down on civil society groups while ignoring the far greater problem of big money’s influence on politics.

We’ve seen the power of big money in politics. From tax regulations that allow one third of companies to pay no corporate tax to the mining lobby toppling a sitting PM; from a housing system that puts profit before the human right to shelter to a gambling sector that is allowed to funnel billions out of the pockets of working Australians, some of whom are suffering crippling addictions. Yet instead of tackling the issue of big money, the Turnbull government ignores the evidence, ignores the public outcry for change, and disingenuously dresses up an astounding attack on political enemies as political donation reform.

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Of course we need political donations reform – an issue the Greens have been campaigning on for over 15 years. Our vision for reform includes: a ban on donations from for-profit corporations and foreign entities, caps on other donations, caps on election expenditure, increased transparency and real-time online disclosure. Turnbull’s bill is so far removed from addressing political donations reform that had it been law at the time of the Sam Dastyari scandal, those donations still wouldn’t have been illegal.

We do need real reform on political donations and to get big money out of politics. What we don’t need is more spin and attacks on civil society from this government.

• Lee Rhiannon is the Greens’ democracy spokesperson and Senator for NSW