00:00The government says it's taking on big money in politics.
00:05It's concerned that very wealthy Australians can use their money to essentially buy influence
00:10and shape political campaigns.
00:14Someone like Clive Palmer is clearly a prime target of these new laws.
00:18Of course, he has in the past poured tens of millions of dollars of his own money into
00:23his own political campaigns, into his own political party in particular, eventually
00:29winning seats in Parliament too.
00:31The government says it's been working on these laws for quite some time, consulting with
00:37the opposition primarily to put together this package.
00:41It says it wants to dilute the power of big donors and try and level the political playing
00:45field.
00:46But there's already quite a bit of pushback to these new laws, particularly from the crossbench
00:51who are calling this a stitch up between the two major parties in Australia aimed at entrenching
00:57their own power within the Parliament.
00:59This is designed to take big money out of Australian politics.
01:05We're not targeting individuals.
01:08We're targeting the system that allows an uncapped amount of money to be spent on elections.
01:19We don't want to go down the track of the American election system.
01:23We want to cap the amount of money people can spend, and that applies to anybody.
01:29So Tom, what would the new limits be?
01:31Yeah, Lorna, there are three main planks to the new reforms.
01:35It goes to caps on donations, caps on spending, and also real time disclosures of donations
01:42made to political parties.
01:43So just to talk through these caps, on donations there's a cap of $20,000 per candidate.
01:49That's the most an individual can donate to a single candidate, or $600,000 across
01:55an election campaign.
01:56So you can donate to multiple candidates, but that's capped at $600,000.
02:00For a person like Clive Palmer, that would be a significant change given the money he's
02:04poured into campaigns in the past.
02:07In terms of spending, a candidate can spend no more than $800,000 on their campaign.
02:12That could affect Teal independent candidates who have spent more in their own races in
02:16the past, and a cap of $90 million for political parties, which is less than Labor and the
02:21Coalition have spent on previous campaigns.
02:24There's also that disclosure change I mentioned before.
02:27Currently, any donation made under $17,000 or so does not have to be disclosed.
02:33That cap would be lowered to $1,000.
02:36So all donations made over that $1,000 mark would be made public and be made public sooner
02:40too.
02:41OK, what's been the reaction then?
02:43Yeah, as I mentioned before, we have seen significant pushback from the crossbench to
02:48these changes.
02:49They're calling this something of a stitch up aimed at entrenching those two major parties
02:53in the system.
02:54They're furious about the consultation process, saying the government has been working with
02:58the opposition on this, but not with the crossbench to anywhere near the same extent.
03:02Though you heard the special minister of state, Don Farrell, arguing the government's been
03:06working on this for quite some time.
03:08They're primarily concerned this will limit the ability of independent candidates to take
03:13on the big major parties.
03:15So as we saw at the last election, a whole quite a large number, really, of independent
03:19candidates elected to the parliament taking on Labor or Liberal candidates in key seats.
03:25They say these rules would perhaps limit their ability to push back on those well-established
03:30campaigns.
03:31Here's the member for Curtin, Kate Cheney, an independent MP, speaking on this earlier
03:35today.
03:36I absolutely do think we need some caps to make sure that individuals can't have a disproportionate
03:41effect on politics.
03:42And I'm really happy to see some changes that do that.
03:47But rushing these through at the last minute is not the way to do that.
03:51That needs to be discussed openly.
03:54And there might be legal objections, but also I think it doesn't pass the pub test that
04:00we don't want the big parties to change the rules to lock themselves in.
04:05Now Lorna, these laws will be introduced to parliament next week.
04:08The government wants them legislated by the end of the year, but they wouldn't take effect
04:12until the election after next.
04:14I should also mention we've heard from Clive Palmer.
04:17Of course, he does have one senator in the parliament for his Palmer United, the United
04:22Australia Party.
04:23Sorry, Senator Ralph Babbitt.
04:25He's already flagging a legal challenge and he said in a statement, this new legislation
04:29is designed to rig elections.
04:31It will also hinder the independents, the regular Australians, from standing for parliament,
04:36which is what the constitution was designed for.
04:38So already flagging these laws might wind up in the High Court.
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