Activist group GetUp says Australia’s donations and disclosure system needs to be radically overhauled to ensure all political donations above $500 are posted in real time, on the internet.
GetUp will use a submission to a parliamentary inquiry on the conduct of the last federal election and the donations system to lobby for the establishment of a new federal anti-corruption body, and for caps on donations and campaign expenditure.
In the submission, seen by Guardian Australia, the organisation proposes a six-point plan to impose more transparency on the donations and disclosure system, which has been declared broken by a number of experts.
But ahead of the committee’s deliberations the special minister of state, Scott Ryan, has warned that any overhaul of the rules regulating donations and disclosure for political parties must also consider the role of activist groups, such as GetUp, otherwise reforms would create an uneven playing field, and not serve the public interest.
In an interview with Guardian Australia in September, Ryan argued the big change in the past decade in Australian politics had been the rise of pressure groups capable of influencing election outcomes, and he argued it would be unreasonable to look at political parties in isolation from third-party activist groups.
Ryan’s concerns have been backed by the prime minister, a number of government ministers, and by the Tasmanian senator Eric Abetz, who has expressed anger about GetUp’s campaigning in Tasmania, a state where the government suffered a substantial negative swing.
Abetz has declared the parliamentary inquiry needs to examine what he terms “GetUp’s grubby tactics in the 2016 election”.
Some countries, like Canada, restrict third-party activism during elections.
Under electoral law in Canada, third-party activist groups are permitted to spend what they like on advertising before the start of an election campaign but, once the writs are issued, spending is capped, which works to limit the influence of these groups.
Canadian activist groups have to register once they have run up election advertising expenses over $500 and the campaigns have to clearly identify the activist group and the state that has authorised the expenditure.
The Coalition was spooked in the 2016 federal election campaign by the extensive field operations mounted by the progressive side of politics, including trade union campaigns and the GetUp activity in marginal seats.
GetUp in its submission to the parliamentary inquiry says it is a people-powered organisation, and Natalie O’Brien, the group’s economic fairness campaigns director, told Guardian Australia that “everyday people chipping in what they can, through organisations like GetUp, is an important act of democratic participation”.
“We’re confident the committee will recognise that,” she said.
She said the problem in the Australian political system was not third-party activism, but institutional influence.
“It’s plain to everyone that something needs to be done about the enormous level of political influence that billionaires and big corporations have in this country,” O’Brien said.
“Time after time we see politicians giving corporations special treatment and making policy decisions that favour vested interests. We want to see a transparent system of political finance that amplifies the small contributions of everyday Australians. We hope the committee will look seriously at our six-point plan to get there.”
The GetUp submission argues for an anti-corruption watchdog; expenditure caps on election campaigns; capping the amount any individual or corporation can donate at $1,000 per financial year; and requiring all donations above $500 to be publicly disclosed on the internet in real-time – including donations to and from affiliated entities.
Additionally the group says corporation and entities not registered in Australia, or any individual who doesn’t have citizenship or residency, should be banned from making political donations; and it argues parliamentarians should be expressly prohibited from engaging in lobbying work for a period of three years after they leave office.
