The federal government is sticking to existing reporting requirements for political donations, after Labor unveiled reforms it says will restore integrity to a system that has come under increasing pressure.
A spokesman for the special minister of state, Michael Ronaldson, said “the government has no plans to alter the reporting requirements at this stage”.
Labor resolved to adopt a number of changes to the system during its national conference at the weekend, including the real time reporting of political donations.
Currently, political parties are obliged to disclose donations of more than $13,000 annually.
Labor wants voluntary disclosure starting from $1,000 and a cap for donations and campaign spending.
“The government needs to work with Labor on this issue. All political parties receive private donations, and all political parties must take responsibility for reform,” shadow special minister of state Gary Gray said on Saturday.
“I call on the government to work with Labor to improve the integrity of our political donations system. The Australian people expect nothing less than transparency around who wields power in our political system,” he said.
The treasurer, Joe Hockey, said the two major parties often discussed changes to the political system.
“The parties are always in discussion about it, but the bottom line is if you decrease private fundraising, then you have to increase taxpayer funded election campaigns,” he told ABC Radio on Monday.
The Greens are unconvinced.
“That’s not an excuse; it’s not a valid argument,” Greens spokeswoman Lee Rhiannon told Guardian Australia.
She said voters would “breathe a sigh of relief” by having fewer “misleading and superficial” campaign ads that would result from less funding.
Rhiannon welcomed Labor’s proposals, pointing out that they were similar to those put forward by the Greens in a private member’s bill that is currently before the Senate.
On Monday, Fairfax Media reported that the Menzies 200 club, a fundraising organisation for defence minister Kevin Andrews, received money from the gambling lobby while he was in charge of formulating the Coalition’s response to poker machines, as social services spokesman before the 2013 federal election.
In August 2013 Clubs New South Wales donated $20,000 to the Menzies 200 club, Fairfax reported.
The defence minister strongly denied any wrongdoing, pointing to the fact that the Coalition’s opposition to dollar limits on poker machines was known well before the donations were made.
“Assertions made by Fairfax media today, that suggest my decision-making was influenced by donations, is wrong and offensive,” Andrews said.
Senior Coalition members backed the minister, while accusing unions of being Labor’s puppet masters.
Tony Abbott said he was confident the Coalition had handled donations in accordance with the rules.
“The bottom line is that over the last few years, the Labor party has received $25m from the union movement,” the prime minister said. “If there is an issue with political donations in this country, frankly, the big issue is the fact that the alternative government of this country, the Labor party, is still owned and operated by the trade union movement,” he said.
The treasurer, Joe Hockey, reiterated Abbott’s message.
“You can see the influence of the fee paying and funding union movement on the rank and file of the Labor party,” Hockey told ABC Radio. “If you are suggesting the same applies in the Liberal party I would say absolutely not. The Liberal party cannot be bought.”
Hockey said the Clubs NSW donation was already a matter of public record.
“All the information that I saw on the front of the [Sydney Morning] Herald today was in fact public information so there has been public disclosure, and the policy that went to the last election was disclosed two years before the last election. So the the electorate had a good look at our policy on that beforehand,” he said.
The communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said he thought Andrews had acted within the law.
“People say what are the motives of the donor and so forth and there are concerns about that,” he told reporters. “It’s important to bear in mind that the donations that you’re talking about were fully disclosed, they were entirely lawful.”
“The Coalition’s policy in this regard or Kevin Andrews’ policy as the responsible minister was not changed subsequent to the receipt of the donation. In fact, it had been in place for a long time,” Turnbull said. “Political donations have never influenced my decisions, ever. And I don’t believe there’s any evidence that they have influenced the policies of the Liberal party.”
Independent senator Nick Xenophon questioned why Clubs NSW would have made donations to Andrews, whose electorate is in Victoria.
“I’m not sure why they bothered because it seems the Coalition has been doing the bidding of the poker machine lobby for quite some time before these donations were made,” he said.
It is not the first time that ministers have had their donations questioned.
In May, Matthias Cormann denied any wrong-doing by accepting donations from the Financial Services Council when he was shadow finance minister. The same body donated money to Hockey and his Labor predecessor Chris Bowen.
