The government is set to press ahead with efforts to ban foreign donations, but the activist group GetUp says it hopes the Coalition will consider the “fundamental” difference between what political parties do and what advocacy groups do.



In a new submission to the joint standing committee on electoral matters, which is holding a fresh inquiry into political donations, GetUp says “certain far-right journalists and politicians” have become obsessed with “mythical tides of foreign funding” flowing to GetUp.

To address some of the claims made in public debate, the group says it intends to publish details of its overseas donation sources in its next annual report and all future annual reports.

GetUp says it is happy for any ban on offshore donations to apply to it for electoral campaigns, but says the government needs to understand “there’s a legitimate place for overseas philanthropy in funding local charities, advocacy and other public interest organisations”.

“For example, the Great Barrier Reef is of world significance, and it is entirely appropriate that the campaign to protect it receives funding from philanthropic organisations based overseas.

“We hope any legislation relating to offshore donations to third parties respects this.”

The activist group says it hopes the government will take into account the “fundamental difference” between political parties and third party activist groups in drafting its package.

GetUp says political parties have the opportunity to develop policy and pass legislation, whereas activist groups “operate outside of formal political channels”.

“The need for a strong regulatory and disclosure regime is therefore especially pertinent for political parties, and any reforms designed for political parties must be applied proportionately so as to protect the constitutional right of third parties to have a voice and participate in election campaigns.”

The process of examining the donations and disclosure regime began when the government sent a reference to the joint standing committee asking it to canvass options for reform of foreign donations following the controversy that erupted over a decision by the Labor senator Sam Dastyari to ask a Chinese businessman to cover a travel overspend.

From the outset, the Coalition has made it clear that it wants any ban on overseas funding to apply not only to political parties, but to advocacy groups participating in political debates.

That ambition has caused intense disquiet among advocacy groups, who argue a ban would adversely affect their public interest advocacy.

Senior government players believe resolution of the foreign donations issue in the final parliamentary sitting weeks of 2017 is separate to the work the joint standing committee is currently undertaking on disclosure reform.

But in setting up the new inquiry, Liberal, Labor and Green members of the committee have badged the current committee process as a chance to reach a multipartisan agreement on reform, after their effort to reach a joint position on foreign donations failed earlier in the year.

The parliamentary joint committee produced a report earlier this year which reflected an in-principle agreement between the major parties to ban foreign donations. But the committee fell out over the treatment of third party activist groups.

The Coalition has made it clear it wants activist groups to be covered by the same curbs and regulations as political parties to avoid the creation of loopholes.

Labor, through the committee, said it could not support the Coalition proposal to extend the fundraising and financial disclosure obligations imposed by the Electoral Act “to capture all third parties that are in any way involved in public campaigning”.

Labor members said extending the ban to third-party activist groups “would represent a dramatic extension of scope of the current regulatory scheme under the act”.

It is not clear whether that standing disagreement will scuttle the foreign donations legislation the government will bring forward in the coming parliamentary sitting weeks.

GetUp argues the foreign donations reforms proposed by the joint parliamentary committee would leave untouched “millions of dollars funnelled into our political system by foreign multinational corporations like Adani, either directly or via organisations such as Minerals Council of Australia and Business Council of Australia”.

“The absurdity of this approach will only serve to reinforce the public’s increasingly cynical view of our elected representatives.”