Don Farrell agrees to amendments to secure Coalition support on electoral law reforms. The major parties have struck a deal to cap political donations and campaign spending, sidelining crossbenchers in a major overhaul of federal electoral laws. The legislation was expected to pass the Senate on Wednesday night after the special minister of state, Don Farrell, agreed to several amendments to secure the Coalition’s support for his plan to strip big money out of politics.
Under the changes, the cap on individual donations would rise from the proposed $20,000 to $50,000 and the disclosure threshold would increase from $1,000 to $5,000. The revised disclosure threshold was still significantly lower than the $16,900 bar set for this year, meaning fewer “dark money” donations would be able to remain secret. The campaign spending limits would be $800,000 per electorate, and $90m nationally, as per the original drafting of the bill.
Currently, there were no limits on donations or expenditure, which had allowed the mining magnate Clive Palmer to spend tens of millions of dollars campaigning at previous elections. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email. In a separate change slated to pass Wednesday night, peak bodies such as the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Business Council of Australia would be able to set aside up to $200,000, or four times the new donations cap, from affiliated unions or members to fund national campaigns.
The caps would not start until the federal election due in 2028. The deal infuriated crossbenchers, who for weeks had sounded alarm about the prospect of a Labor-Coalition “stitch-up” that disadvantaged smaller players. As well as the spending and donations caps, the independents were outraged about the increase in public funding per vote, from $3.35 to $5. The independent senator David Pocock tried unsuccessfully on Wednesday afternoon to split the legislation and send the caps off to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny.
Pocock – who, along with the Curtin MP Kate Chaney, had been the most vocal critic of the laws – said self-interest was the main motivation for the major parties. Sign up to Breaking News Australia. Get the most important news as it breaks. after newsletter promotion. “When it comes to the major parties, it’s self-interest: [number] one, self-interest comes second, self-interest comes third,” he said.
“That’s what they’re here to do, is to make sure that they stay in power, and they will do whatever it takes.”. Chaney accused Labor and the Coalition of teaming up to stifle political competition, as she urged voters to send the major parties a message at the next election. “If the major parties get together like this to stitch up future competition, then the Australian people will have to speak to them in the only language they understand – and that’s votes,” she said.
The Greens’ democracy spokesperson, Larissa Waters, said the deal would allow the major parties to “keep power and privilege”. The Centre for Public Integrity, an independent thinktank, said it was an “affront to our democratic process” that such complex legislation could be rammed through without the scrutiny of a parliamentary inquiry. The government had argued that donation and spending caps were widely canvassed by parliament’s joint standing committee on electoral matters, whose recommendations shaped Farrell’s bill.
