Activists say inquiry, which will mimic a royal commission, will be held due to fear ‘democracy has been sold’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A March election would usually be a distant memory by August. But not so in Tasmania, where anger over the 2018 campaign remains white-hot.

A group of community activists will tap into that sentiment on Wednesday, launching a novel concept in a state with the weakest political donations laws in the country – fed up over a lack of political transparency, the group will hold its own inquiry into the 2018 state election.

“We really are concerned that our democracy has been sold,” said Amanda Sully, an environmental campaigner. “Because Tasmania is such a small place, if you throw in a few million dollars, which big corporations can easily afford, we’re a very cheap state to buy. We think this is what we’ve just witnessed.”

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Months after Will Hodgman’s Liberal government was re-elected, claims of so-called “dirty money” continue to hang over the parliament.

Under existing laws, political donations data will not be released by the electoral commission until next year.

But gaming and hospitality interests are believed to have poured millions into the Liberals’ campaign effort after a Labor pledge to remove poker machines from pubs and clubs. When the Labor leader, Rebecca White, gave her concession speech, she accused the Hodgman of “buying” seats.

The group of activists has incorporated as a company, the “Tasmanian Election 2018 Inquiry”, and is being supported by the federal independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who will launch the inquiry on Wednesday in Hobart.

“The basic idea is we will hold it as close to the format as a royal commission as a possible,” Sully told Guardian Australia.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The federal independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who will launch the inquiry on Wednesday in Hobart. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

“We are hoping to get a legal or corruption expert to come down. We’re going to be putting out calls for community consultation. We’re also going to put out a call to whistleblowers if they have any evidence in the gambling industry, or the fish farms industry, or the gun lobby.”

“The Liberals are most welcome to come as well,” Sully said. “We want answers from them.”

Obviously, the group will be unable to compel witnesses.

The decision to launch the inquiry, which will take submissions from the community and be chaired by a yet-to-be-announced “corruption expert”, comes after they wrote to Hodgman in June and demanded to know who had funded his party’s re-election effort. He wrote back last month but declined to do so.

The group outlined a list of complaints, including that the Liberals did not publicly release their contentious gun laws policy (it emerged in the media days before the election), and that changes to fish stocking levels – a highly controversial issue in Tasmania – were not announced by the Environmental Protection Authority until two days after the election.

Six days after the election, it emerged that the government had tripled the funding of the Tasmanian Hospitality Association, which had strongly backed the government. Both the THA and the government have denied any wrongdoing.

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Responding in a letter obtained by Guardian Australia, Hodgman said he categorically rejected the “assertion that the election outcome was in any way tainted”.

“No one had influence over any voter in the democratic process,” he wrote. “Tasmanian voters were free to form their own views, cast their vote according to those views and choose their elected government, just like any other state election.”

White also responded, telling the group: “Labor is concerned that the Liberal government is actively undermining transparency and consultation.”

A spokesman for the premier said the government had already established a review into the Electoral Act and associated election laws.

The inquiry, which has been created by Sully with campaigners from gun control, pokies reform and other local movements, will be crowdfunded. It will hand down a report with recommendations.



Sully said the group’s biggest hope was that it could pressure the government into embracing political donations reform.

“Do we want to go down the US path of big corporations buying the elections?” she said. “We saw the start of that this year. It’s frightening for our democracy.”