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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 9 Hansard (7 September) . . Page.. 2966 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

My amendment, Mr Speaker, would require that in respect of any donations of above $10,000 to political parties or individuals, those political parties or individuals would be unable to vote or take part in discussions on issues that are linked to the people who donate the money. I think it is something that should give some people in this place something to think about. I, for one, Mr Speaker, would find it very hard if I received hundreds of thousands of dollars from any particular group or organisation to be balanced when it came to voting on an issue.

Mr Speaker, I will have that amendment ready this afternoon. I will table it and I will look at it with interest, as I look at Mr Stanhope's, and I hope the Labor Party looks at my amendment with a view to supporting that as well.

MS TUCKER (11.15): I am glad that Mr Humphries has put forward the bill. It has caused me to look in some detail at the disclosure provisions of the Electoral Act and to realise that there are some significant gaps and inconsistencies in how parties and MLAs declare gifts and donations that they receive. This bill looks quite simple but it has raised for me a number of issues about disclosure of MLAs pecuniary interests that I believe are not adequately addressed in the Electoral Act.

The act currently contains a range of disclosure provisions dealing with the income and expenditure of parties, candidates and associated entities during election periods. I am aware that Mr Moore has put up a private members bill that reduces the thresholds at which donations have to be declared. That is a good initiative, but I will not dwell on that part of the act now.

The part that I am interested in today contains the provisions relating to the annual returns of parties and Independent MLAs. At the end of each financial year, parties and Independent MLAs must provide to the Electoral Commissioner a return detailing amounts paid to the party or Independent MLA over the year and amounts spent on various campaign expenses. In addition, those people who give donations to a party or Independent MLA also have to put in an annual return so that this information can be correlated with the party's and MLA's returns.

Concern has been raised that the current wording of the act means that Independent MLAs have to declare in their annual returns all income they have received, even their own MLA salary and interest on investments, which I understand was not the intention of the act. It is also inequitable in that party MLAs do not have to provide any annual returns at all; only their party provides a return. I can accept that this is a problem and that the act should be changed. Where I differ with the government, however, is how the act should be changed.

I believe that the wording the government has used in this bill to describe which gifts have to be declared by Independent MLAs is too restrictive. I think a better approach would be to require all MLAs, not just Independents, to provide annual returns on gifts and donations they receive. I think there is a general acceptance that the public has a right to know when MLAs are getting gifts and donations in their role as MLAs. I am not including personal gifts that an MLA may get regardless of the fact that they are an MLA, such as birthday presents. What I mean is gifts and donations that they were given only because the person is an MLA because the donor thinks the MLA deserves support because of their work as an MLA.

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