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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (15 June) . . Page.. 1944 ..

MR MOORE: For payments, there is nothing on the previous page. There might have been two pages in an election year. There would have been double the amount of work in an election year. That is the sort of work that I know drives political parties crazy because of the administration involved. The Greens can manage it. They are not objecting to it, and they are much smaller than the other two parties, with fewer resources. They must have people able to slave for days to prepare these sorts of things. I did not ask for copies of the Greens' returns, because when I looked at them before they were so boring. Besides, the Greens are not the ones claiming that they want to be consistent with the federal scheme.

There is no reason not to give details of expenditure. Why are they trying to hide their expenditure? Why are they trying to make it secret, the very thing they argue against in this place all the time?

MR RUGENDYKE (10.17): I have mentioned Mr Beazley often enough, and he is again correct on this one. This scandal is worse than the one I thought could not be bettered. This is it, isn't it, Mr Moore?

Mr Moore: No. We have more coming.

MR RUGENDYKE: Is there worse still to come?

Mr Moore: There is still worse to come. This is the expenditure side.

MR RUGENDYKE: I am sure that if you were to ask the Electoral Commissioner to come up with something diametrically opposed to what he would recommend, this would be it. The amendments of the Attorney-General would be it.

Mr Osborne: He would not, surely! It could not happen!

MR RUGENDYKE: The Attorney-General has done it. If you were to ask the Electoral Commissioner to produce something diametrically opposed to what this is, there it is in the original bill, the bill we are amending.

It is a scandal. As Mr Moore says, what are they trying to hide? Do not come to me in future when you want to talk about openness, accountability and integrity. Do not bleat to me about openness and accountability. This is outrageous, and the community will see it for what it is.

MS TUCKER (10.19): The Greens will be supporting this amendment. It puts back into the bill the provisions in the act that required parties, MLAs and associated entities to disclose amounts paid by them during the financial year. They were kept in the bill but then removed in the government's amendment. This requirement is part of the broader public disclosure requirements that currently apply to parties and associated entities so that public confidence in the fairness of our electoral system can be maintained.

I spoke at length about my concerns and the Greens' concerns about what the government and the Labor Party are doing here. I will not repeat myself but just say that I am appalled that the major parties are seeking to reduce public disclosure

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