Political Donations
Sometimes it is difficult to work out what is going on inside people’s brains. Tony Abbott has copped plenty of deserved flak over his ludicrous defence of the Liberal Party’s decision to solicit donations not for flood victims but so that the party can run a campaign against the government’s flood tax.
If his judgment has been found wanting, more questionable is the judgment of anyone who would dip into their hard-earned for a political party, when there are much important things to spend money on, such as children’s books or beer.
Abbott had the easiest of outs on this issue, and messed it up completely. He could and should have said that the Liberal Party had issued the appeal for donations under its own steam and that he had spoken to the people involved and ordered them, as leader, to set aside any money raised to be handed directly and entirely to the Queensland Flood Appeal.
Continue reading "Let’s just get rid of all political donations" »
Political donations seem to be a hot agenda item.
The besieged NSW Labor machine suddenly comes up with a solution to starve the Coalition of funds for the forthcoming March 2011 election.
NSW Labor, long the recipient of donations for decisions suddenly thinks only 3rd parties should be allowed to spend large amounts of money on election campaigns, but under their scheme unions as well as left wing fellow travellers such as Get Up are deemed to be 3rd parties.
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Bob says:
World wide the Socialists (I include Greens/GetUp/MoveOn in this) are creating chaos to capitalize on the demise of capitalism. They are systematically pushing their agenda to create distrust / distortion / disfranchisement people with the current political landscape. Getup pushing everything that not mainstream and claiming “They are the voice… Read more »
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Fiddlesticks says:
Yeah yeah yeah. And what did the Unions ever do for you, eh. Other than fair hours, fair pay, fair leave, and safe working conditions. Yeah. Who wanted or needed all that, eh. What a waste of employers time and money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s bring back the sweat shops,… Read more »
Coalition Senator Michael Ronaldson decries the current mixed funding system of elections in his post on the Punch last week.
Early last year the newly elected Government introduced the Commonwealth Electoral Amendments (Political Donations and Other Measures) Bill 2009 to the Senate to make political donations more transparent. However the bill was defeated by Liberal Senators who did not want to clean up our campaign finance system.
Australia has a very clean electoral system by world standards. While we don’t hear complaints in Australia that elections have been rigged, the funding system is in need of some reform.
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Peter says:
“the Coalition at least in its recent Turnbull incarnation had a unity ticket with the Greens Political Party to ban all donations to parties, from individuals and organisations! “ This is a lie - the Libs have only said that donations from business and unions should be banned. In fact,… Read more »
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Pablo says:
“Interesting to see that none of the Green’s party advocates (on this site) dispute that they want to stick Australian tax payers with a $500 million bill to fund all political parties. Quite understandable, when you consider the naked self interest of the Green’s Party. They don’t get union or… Read more »
Can our politicians win elections based on good old-fashioned debate and sound policy, or will they continue their crass cash contests of aggressive marketing campaigns bank-rolled by the wealthy?
And once in office, how can we prevent politicians coming under undue influence from donors at the expense of the interests of their constituents and the broader public?
Until recently, reforming the system of political funding has been the elephant in the room for our esteemed elected representatives. They’ve been acutely aware there is a problem, but reluctant to talk about it.
Continue reading "We all pay the price of buying access in a democracy" »
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frBoblvx says:
Très favorable matinée à chacun des individus de cette assemblée , En premier lieu , offrez-moi l’occasion de vous démontrer ma gratitude pour chacune des très intéressantes infos que j’ai découvertes sur cet agréable site web . … Read more »
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urbancynic says:
Simon - get your facts right: on current political donation cap amount (it is not $11,200), on union contributions to ALP, on ALP owned clubs that have gambling to generate ALP funds, and ALP acceptance of tobacco donations. Then you might have enough credibility to get ALP pre-selection for a… Read more »
“Democracy is not cheap.” That’s what the former NSW President of the Australian Hotels Association John Thorpe had to say about our political system. He was of course referring to the fact that his industry, in the nine years to 2007, had donated a jaw dropping $3.5 million to the NSW Labor Party. And he’s just one of hundreds of big donors out to buy our democracy.
Yesterday the National Audit Office released its report into the ‘Utegate’ debacle. While it found no wrongdoing by our politicians this doesn’t take away from the fact that the scandal left a sour taste in the mouths of many Australians.
Continue reading "The emails may be fake but the donations aren’t" »
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Hagwiyop says:
Since you paid nothing for the privilege of leaving that message, I suppose you did. , zyb.com sync mac, zyb.com sync mac, http://jxgmvs.vucajyr.co.cc/zyb.com-sync-mac.html zyb.com sync mac, 7792, Read more »
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ConcernedCitizen038821842x says:
Dick: Well said generally James: That is one of the most succinct presentations of this issue I have ever heard, I hope you can distribute it! Phil: Well put, espessially about the ‘Noble Savage’ fallacy and the left I would add the comment that we all seem to be assuming… Read more »
Finally the secret is out – no one wants the current practice of political donations and campaign fundraising to continue.
Business became sick of it long before the GFC cut their lobbying budgets. Most realised that donating became more of a risk than an advantage and most influential business people realised they could get a meeting regardless of donations. Some have even worked out that you don’t need to pay $10,000 a month for a lobbyist to get you the appointment.
Politicians have grown to resent the drain on their most precious commodity – time. Time to think, time to work on policy and speeches, time to meet people without the unspoken pressure of donations and most importantly the precious remaining time to spend with family and friends.
Continue reading "Time for a truce in political donations arms race" »
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Shayne says:
There was nothing valid about the swift boat campaign. It was a dirty tricks campaign that involved people lying about kerrys war record much to the discuss of his unit members to make him seem like less of a veteran than the non deployed war dodger bush. McCain would never… Read more »
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English speaking countries of the West Indies, and is cultivated and consumed as a staple crop in the region. , suwanneecockers.com, suwanneecockers.com, http://antydysphemi.an.funpic.de/suwanneecockers.com.html suwanneecockers.com, 8-DDD, Read more »
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