Greens leader Cassy O’Connor has again placed the spotlight on political donation reform, but has committed to pursuing changes inside her party whether or not the major parties act.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms O’Connor said the Greens had nothing to hide and were open to immediately disclosing political donations, confirming she would raise adopting the practice with the party’s Tasmanian membership.
The Greens would be the first Tasmanian party to introduce real-time disclosure of political donations if it adopted the practice.
Ms O’Connor said it was well past time Tasmania acted to fix its “entirely unregulated” political donation system.
Tasmania has no political donation guidelines of its own, meaning it piggybacks off Australian Electoral Commission guidelines that requires donations of more than $13,200 to be disclosed.
Ms O’Connor said the Legislative Council inquiry into the Tasmanian Electoral Commission had highlighted the need for reform and again urged the state government to act.
“What [reform] means fundamentally is that when people go to the ballot box they know who has donated how much to which political party,” she said.
“At the moment in Tasmania we have a completely unregulated landscape where voters don’t know for some 18 months after the election what donations have been made.
“Voters have a right to know the full picture before they cast their vote.”
The Queensland government successfully passed legislation in May which will make parties and candidates declare all donations over $1000 and disclose them in real-time.
A government spokeswoman said it was still considering its response to the Legislative Council’s report.
Labor state secretary Karelle Logan could not be contacted on Wednesday.
The party’s Tasmanian branch has previously submitted that parties and candidates should be required disclose political donations twice a year, rather than the once a year required under the current system.
A number of Tasmanian academics have called for the state’s political donations system to be overhauled, including University of Tasmania freedom of information expert Rick Snell and UTAS Professor Richard Herr.
Dr Herr has previously said timely disclosure allowed voters to draw conclusions about the reasons political donations were made.
During the federal election campaign Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie disclosed all donations received by the Jacqui Lambie Network and called for an overhaul of donation guidelines.