April 5 2007
The Coalition for Open Government said today that for the public to retain confidence in the electoral process, any increase in public funding should only follow much tighter donation and disclosure limits.
“We think the public will only buy increased state funding if it comes with rules turning off the tap on the flow of secret donations,” Coalition spokesperson Steven Price said today. “It looks like Labour is only planning on turning it half-way off.”
The Coalition welcomes the government’s plan to prevent donors from hiding their identities by routing their donations through trusts. But it seems that those rules will only kick in at $5000.
“Why stop there?” asks Price. “Why let anyone secretly funnel money to a party? Why permit any trusts set up just so donors can hide their identity from the public – while still letting the party know who they’re beholden to?”
The Coalition’s view is that nobody at all should be able to give more than $20 anonymously. Parties should record donors’ identities and disclose anyone who gives more than $200 in a year. No person or organisation should be allowed to give more than $5000 each year. And parties should have to tell voters who’s giving them money before the election, not wait until afterwards.
If those rules are tightened up, there may be a case for more public funding. But the Coalition points out that parties already receive public funding – through a pot of broadcasting time and money that’s divided between the parties, and through the use (and misuse) of their Parliamentary budgets.
“We think that the existing streams of funding need to be made much more fair and transparent before politicians think about voting their parties more,” said Price.
