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.
01:28There are three main planks to the new reforms.
01:30It goes to caps on donations, caps on spending, and also real-time disclosures of donations
01:37made to political parties.
01:39So just to talk through these caps, on donations there's a cap of $20,000 per candidate.
01:45That's the most an individual can donate to a single candidate, or $600,000 across an
01:51election campaign.
01:52So you can donate to multiple candidates, but that's capped at $600,000.
01:56For a person like Clive Palmer, that would be a significant change, given the money he's
02:00poured into campaigns in the past.
02:03In terms of spending, a candidate can spend no more than $800,000 on their campaign.
02:08That could affect teal independent candidates who have spent more in their own races in
02:12the past, and a cap of $90 million for political parties, which is less than Labor and the
02:17Coalition have spent on previous campaigns.
02:20There's also that disclosure change I mentioned before.
02:23Currently, any donation made under $17,000 or so does not have to be disclosed.
02:29That cap would be lowered to $1,000.
02:31So all donations made over that $1,000 mark would be made public and be made public sooner.
02:36We have seen significant pushback from the crossbench to these changes.
02:40They're calling this something of a stitch-up aimed at entrenching those two major parties
02:45in the system.
02:46They're furious about the consultation process, saying the government has been working with
02:49the opposition on this, but not with the crossbench to anywhere near the same extent.
02:54Though you heard the special minister of state, Don Farrell, arguing the government's been
02:58working on this for quite some time.
03:00They're primarily concerned this will limit the ability of independent candidates to take
03:05on the big major parties.
03:06I absolutely do think we need some caps to make sure that individuals can't have a disproportionate
03:11effect on politics.
03:12And I'm really happy to see some changes that do that.
03:18But rushing these through at the last minute is not the way to do that.
03:22That needs to be discussed openly.
03:25And there might be legal objections, but also I think it doesn't pass the pub test that
03:30we don't want the big parties to change the rules to lock themselves in.
03:35These laws will be introduced to parliament next week.
03:37The government wants them legislated by the end of the year, but they wouldn't take effect
03:41until the election after next.
03:44I should also mention we've heard from Clive Palmer.
03:47He does have one senator in the parliament for the United Australia Party, Senator Ralph
03:53Babbitt.
03:54He's already flagging a legal challenge and he said in a statement,
04:07So already flagging these laws might wind up in the High Court.
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