The Greens and Jacqui Lambie have blasted federal Labor for preparing to pass a government bill watering down state donation disclosure laws with minimal amendment, a move opposed by its own Queensland branch.
Last week, Labor indicated it would support the bill to clarify that commonwealth electoral law applied to donations for federal purposes, which has now been listed for debate on Wednesday.
Labor asked the government for two amendments, delaying its start until after the Queensland election and requiring political parties to keep separate bank accounts for federal and state purposes.
The position, expressed in a “dissenting” report from Labor members of the joint standing committee on electoral matters, contradicts Queensland Labor’s outright opposition to the bill.
The electoral legislation (miscellaneous measures) bill was introduced by the government in June to clean up the fallout from a high court decision in April 2019 ruling the commonwealth could not override state donation laws’ application to untied money. The bill provides immunity from state law where donations are made for federal purposes.
The bill prompted concern from the Senate crossbench and donation law experts, who warned that donors would only be required to meet the less strict federal threshold for donation disclosure.
They also warned the bill could allow a backdoor for prohibited donors to donate to state political parties for federal purposes, freeing up other funds for state campaigns and defeating the intention of the ban.
The Jscem, chaired by Liberal MP James McGrath, recommended the bill be passed after clarification that immunity from prosecution only applied if donations were made to a separate federal account of a state party.
In a dissenting report, the Greens proposed removing provisions that give donors immunity from state donation laws if donations are made for federal purposes.
They warned the bill would “allow parties to undermine state efforts to regulate the influence of donations through strong disclosure rules and banning donations”.
In their “dissenting” report, the four Labor members said they “support passage of the bill” provided its commencement is delayed until after 31 October and is amended to require separate federal and state campaign accounts.
“The commonwealth parliament should be able to make laws with respect to commonwealth elections – without the threat of those laws being overridden by the states,” they said.
The Labor members reiterated their support for the current federal disclosure threshold of $14,300 to be lowered to $1,000 – but did not make it a condition of their support.
Labor’s shadow special minister of state, Don Farrell, said Labor believes in “a uniform, transparent, donation disclosure regime for all federal parties and candidates across the country”. Separate bank accounts would ensure parties “cannot circumvent disclosure regimes”, he said.
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said the government “intends to act” on the call for separate campaign accounts and is “open to considering” a delayed start date.
Lambie told Guardian Australia while she is “not shocked” the Liberals would further weaken donations laws she is “shocked that the Labor party would back them in”.
“I’m going to be talking to them this morning and trying to get the Labor party to see the sense in not undermining our already weak-tea donations laws even further.”
Julie-Ann Campbell, the Queensland Labor state secretary, said: “As it stands, the bill would erode transparency at a federal level, and undermine the integrity agenda of the Palaszczuk state Labor government.”
Campbell blamed the Morrison government – calling on it to “explain why, in the midst of a global pandemic, they are trying to ram through legislation that undermines the nation-leading integrity scheme implemented by the Palaszczuk government”.
ACF democracy campaigner, Jolene Elberth, said the bill is “a regressive step for the integrity of elections in Australia” because it allows “donations to state parties to be exempt from state electoral finance regulation if they are said to be for a federal purpose”.
“The federal legislation has higher thresholds for disclosure and less frequent reporting,” she said.
“By allowing donors to state branches to disclose donations at the much higher federal donation threshold, we would see a significant increase of dark money in our political system.
“There is really no reason why donors should not disclose donations at the lower state disclosure threshold.”
Elberth said it was “disappointing” Labor hadn’t supported further amendments, and its support for the bill “goes against [its] longstanding position for lower donation disclosure thresholds”.
The Human Rights Law Centre legal director, Daniel Webb, said: “With the fluid way money is funnelled through our political system, simply branding a donation as being for ‘federal purposes’ doesn’t deprive that funding of its potential to corrupt state politics.”
