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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4013 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

In fact, when I went back and checked under the current legislation what would happen to the annual returns of the Liberal Party and the Labor Party - I presume that it would be the same for others, but I just checked the Liberal Party and the Labor Party - and what would need to be reported, in both cases it cut out about two-thirds of what is currently reported. The information we have at present, that anybody can go to the Electoral Commission and ask for, for a small fee, would basically disappear. Of the overall donation over this particular period - which, in the case of the Labor Party, as I recall, was $670,000 - we would be able to identify where only about $200,000 came from. It might be a little bit more. That applies similarly to the Liberal Party. In the case of the Liberal Party, of the $450,000-odd that was identified as receipts in the financial year, we would probably be able to identify where only something like $100,000 came from.

To reduce that kind of scrutiny is inconsistent with the approach that was taken by Ms Follett when she introduced this legislation. It is inconsistent with the approach that the Liberal Party has taken in terms of seeking open government. I can understand the way this has happened. There is an intention simply to remain parallel with the Commonwealth. But I think that members should really think about it very carefully and ask: Is the cost of aligning with the Commonwealth too great in terms of the benefit? If the cost is too great, then we can get the benefit of what Mr Humphries has proposed in the strengthening and not, on the other hand, weaken the other parts of the legislation, simply by supporting the amendments that I am putting.

MS HORODNY (8.00): The Greens are fully supportive of the requirement in the Electoral Act that political parties disclose their income and expenditure and that major political donors are also required to disclose their funding of particular parties or Independents. This certainly contributes to making the financing of elections in this country open to significant public scrutiny and makes it difficult for individuals or organisations to secretly buy favours from candidates in return for campaign funding. We are also supportive of the existing provisions in the Electoral Act that allow candidates in elections to receive reimbursement for their electoral expenditure, up to certain limits, of course. Running an effective election campaign is very expensive and it is very difficult for Independents and small parties to match the expenditure of the major parties. The reimbursement of expenditure allows some levelling of the playing field on which the various parties and individuals compete for election votes.

However, the Greens have a number of concerns about this Bill to amend the Electoral Act. While we recognise that the Bill has some positive features, there are a number of aspects of the Bill that we disagree with. We have some amendments to this Bill, and I am aware that Mr Moore also has a range of amendments. Because of the complexity of this Bill, it is hard to separate out the parts that are acceptable and the parts that need amending. The Greens, therefore, will be voting against the Bill. I hope that a majority of the Assembly will do the same, so that the Government can go away and take some time to rewrite this Bill in a manner that will be acceptable to all members, rather than have the Assembly attempt to rush through some complicated amendments to the Bill this day.

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