Page 650 - Week 02 - Thursday, 19 February 2015
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you cannot grab the money, take all the money, and then come into this place and put forward an argument such as you have without being so utterly conflicted that your argument falls apart in tatters.
If you want to make a statement in this place, Mr Rattenbury, that you will, from here on, guarantee that any donation over $5,000 will not be accepted by the ACT Greens, I encourage you to make that statement so that we can see if you are prepared to put your money where your mouth is. If you are not prepared to make that statement, let us see this for what it is.
As Mr Coe alluded to in his speech, this is a matter of the Labor Party and the Liberal Party doing what is right to get a suite of measures that are going to be good for democracy in the ACT. The ACT Greens have seen some opportunity here to take the gain from what the Labor Party and the Liberal Party are doing but just get to the left, just pick them up to the left of where the Liberal Party and Labor Party are and confect some outrage around that so that they can be seen as the pure ones and mount an attack on what he would describe as the old parties. Well, put your money where your mouth is. Stand up here and say that you will not take any donation over $5,000 so that we know that you are as morally pure as you make out to be, so that we know that you are putting your ethics forward and you are not playing cheap politics with this matter, as would appear to be the case. I would like you to say that.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (5.22): I will not be making that pledge, because the Greens play by the rules as they are. If this were a soccer match, Mr Hanson would be saying, “Hey, why don’t you come onto the pitch with five players and take on my team of 11?” Well, it does not work like that. I have said it earlier in the debate today: we think the system should be different and we will play by the rules that are set. But if you guys are going to get together and set the rules to suit you then that is the way it is going to have to be, and we will play as hard as we can within the rules that you are going to set. That is how it goes. Let us be honest about it.
MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (5.23): The argument that Mr Rattenbury has been making about the caps is about undue influence. If he is saying that the Greens will accept amounts over $5,000 then he is saying, based on what he believes, that the Greens are quite prepared to take donations that are undue influence. So, rather than coming into this place and saying, “No, any donation over $5,000 would constitute undue influence, therefore we won’t take it,” he is trying to mount a moral argument while still taking the money. His failure to make it clear that the Greens would not take donations over $5,000 makes it very clear to everybody in this place and anyone listening that the Greens do not believe what they are saying. They are simply trying to be just under the Labor Party and the Liberal Party so that they can play the moral card, play the political card. But they still have said that they will take donations which, by what Mr Rattenbury has said and what the Greens have said, are undue influence. That is an untenable position.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (5.24): I have listened to Mr Rattenbury’s commentary on these matters and I simply do not accept the proposition that the Greens play by the rules as set. Of course you have to—that is
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