The ALP should formulate a united position on public funding for political parties that could attract bipartisan support and end the cash-for-access culture in Australian politics, according to Labor's Joel Fitzgibbon.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He was joined by Labor's shadow special minister of state, Gary Gray, on Tuesday in calling for greater transparency around political donations.
Their intervention came after revelations by a Fairfax Media/ABC investigation that has laid bare the way in which Italian Mafia figures have used donations to both sides of politics in an attempt to secure results such as a visa for crime boss Frank Madafferi.
Mr Fitzgibbon, a member of the influential NSW Right, said he would like to see donation reform options debated at Labor's national conference this month.
"I would certainly like to see the party have an ongoing conversation about developing a position that could gain bipartisan support," he said.
"I'm increasingly coming to the view that we need to move to a system of public funding, so that no one has to rely on donations [and] we are all on the same level playing field."
Former prime minister Julia Gillard was on the verge of putting a far-reaching donations reform bill before Parliament in 2013.
The new law would have secured millions of dollars in public funding for parties but the then opposition leader, Tony Abbott, backed out of a secret cross-party pact. Mr Abbott was forced into the U-turn by state branches of the Liberal Party at a time before hearings of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption revealed secret property developer donations had flowed to the party before the 2011 state election.
Mr Gray said the emergence of Mafia links to politicians meant action was needed.
"Revelations that organised criminals have attempted to infiltrate and influence Australian politics are disturbing," he said.
"The most immediate and best way to restore confidence in our political system is to enhance transparency and improve disclosure arrangements."
Last week, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Labor was "up for reform of political donation laws" but there appears little likelihood of bipartisan support at this stage.
On Tuesday, Small Business Minister Bruce Billson poured cold water on the idea, accusing Mr Fitzgibbon of issuing an "uncosted thought bubble".
"I think the real issue for Labor is the rivers of gold that come out of the union movement and the extraordinary stranglehold those rivers of gold give the union over the Labor Party," he said.
Mr Fitzgibbon's call follows a NSW government inquiry last year which found such a measure was unworkable and probably unconstitutional.
An expert government-appointed panel, led by businesswoman Kerry Schott, assessed the feasibility and public interest of a fully publicly-funded electoral model, requiring a ban on political donations.
NSW Premier Mike Baird and former state Labor opposition leader John Robertson had both previously argued for such a system.
But the panel found it would not be feasible for taxpayers to fund every prospective candidate, and that a ban on political donations was likely to be deemed unconstitutional.
The NSW government announced an overhaul of political donation laws in response to the report, and pledged to consider the best way to pursue co-ordinated national reform. It followed a warning by the panel that improvements in NSW could be undermined by weaker federal and interstate regimes.
The panel was formed in response to allegations of funding rorts aired at the Independent Commission Against Corruption, including that certain NSW Liberal MPs sought to funnel illegal donations into their campaigns before the 2011 state election. Its formation also followed earlier fraud and corruption findings against former NSW Labor MPs.
