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Election reform needed to ensure fairness, argue human rights lawyers
New data outlining the extent of political donations highlights the need for reform to ensure fair elections, says the Human Rights Law Centre.
Jerome Doraisamy
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on Monday released data revealing how much each political party and campaigners spent in the 2019 federal election, and the donations used to fund those campaigns.
The data release comes eight months after the 2019 election.
Among the disclosures listed by the AEC were that Clive Palmer donated almost $84 million from his company Mineralogy Pty Ltd to his own election campaign, “dwarfing all other donations”, HRLC observed.
The next biggest donation, the centre continued, was $4.1 million to the Liberal Party from Sugolena Pty Ltd, a company linked with Sydney property owner and arts philanthropist Isaac Wakil, and the largest donation to the ALP was $3 million from the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union National Office.
HRLC senior lawyer Alice Drury said the data demonstrated that reforms to make Australian elections fairer are “desperately needed”.
“Whether rich or poor, everyone should feel empowered to have a say on issues that matter to them at election time. This data shows that in reality, the bigger your bank balance, the bigger your megaphone. And that instead of representing our interests, our politicians are beholden to the big donors who fund their campaigns,” she posited.
“Australia lags far behind other countries when it comes to regulating money in politics. The reforms we need are clear. We need limits on donations to politicians and more public funding, so that politicians answer to us and not their big benefactors.”
“We also need limits on election spends, so rich people can’t far outspend everyone else.”
“Donors give big donations to politicians in order to influence their decisions. It’s outrageous that we don’t know when and from where politicians get their money until well after election day,” Ms Drury argued.
“Real-time disclosure of donations would significantly improve transparency of who is paying for politicians’ election campaigns.”
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly. A former lawyer, he has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. He is also the host of all five shows under The Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network, and has overseen the brand's audio medium growth from 4,000 downloads per month to over 60,000 downloads per month, making The Lawyers Weekly Show the most popular industry-specific podcast in Australia. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of Minds Count.
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