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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4035 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

has to be asked: What public policy purpose is served by creating a separate set of obligations here? As I said before, in practical terms I do not believe there is a loophole in our legislation, as proposed by the Government. Under those circumstances I do not see any reason why political parties who operate at the Federal level and the ACT level should be put under an obligation of having to produce the same information twice, to satisfy Mr Moore.

MR MOORE (9.25): I believe I need to seek leave to speak again.

MR SPEAKER: You do, indeed.

MR MOORE: I seek leave to speak for a short while.

Leave granted.

MR MOORE: I thank members. I want to clarify something that Mr Whitecross said about no party going through with a red pen and crossing out donations. I would not expect that would happen, certainly with the parties represented in this Assembly at the moment. When I look back through the Labor Party declarations, I do notice that the Canberra Labor Club has made a series of donations as set out in the last pages. I just draw the attention of members to a note that says, "Please note that this total includes a value put on other assistance as well as cash donations". There are several donations of $600. In fact, they are spread over a couple of pages. There is one $25 donation. There are also some larger sums. They would be included. What I am saying is that because these are under $1,500 they would never - - -

Mr Humphries: Corruption, for $25.

MR MOORE: There are many donations of $600.

Mr Whitecross: You said $25 a moment ago.

MR MOORE: There is one $25 there. What would happen under this change is that none of these would need to be declared at all.

Mr Whitecross: We declared $25 when the threshold was $100.

MR MOORE: Indeed; but what Mr Whitecross seems to misunderstand is that the $25 always needs to be declared, unless it was collected at a qualified fundraising event. In fact, that is the very clause that we are talking about now. Effectively, we have discussed the whole series of clauses together so that we do not have to keep going through this process.

Mr Berry: You do not know anything about them.

MR MOORE: Mr Berry interjects, "You do not know anything about them". Mr Berry, I was just explaining this.

MR SPEAKER: Interjections are out of order; they should not be answered.

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