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Ingram: more accountability required in political donationsThe Independent Member for Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, is proposing amendments to return the accountability and transparency measures that were removed from the Electoral Bill by a "backroom deal" between the two major parties in 2002. By Craig Ingram - 21st October 2003 - Back to News "The Electoral Bill introduced $1.20 per vote public funding of elections against the wishes of the community," Mr Ingram said.
"The government introduced the legislation and said that the offset of public funding would be greater transparency and accountability of political donations to candidates and political parties.
"When the Attorney General introduced the original Bill he stated in the Parliament: ‘The aim of financial disclosure is to achieve a transparent political process; if the public is aware of the sources of a party's finances, the party should be less likely to alter its policies in the interests of large donors.’
"And further he stated: ‘This bill contains the best features of the disclosure requirements in the commonwealth model but also contains a number of additional requirements with the aim of creating the most stringent system of disclosure in Australia’
"The government’s commitment to a fair and open and accountable election process was destroyed when they gutted almost 40 pages from the bill.
"In a deal to get the legislation passed, they removed almost all of the accountability measures on political donations, including requirements of agents of political candidates and parties; disclosure of gifts or political donations over $200; and disclosure of election expenditure, requirements for annual returns.
"Changes were also made to the capping of political donations and a section giving the commission powers to inspect and charge was removed.
"As this was originally the government’s own policy, I hope that they will accept my amendments to return real accountability to the election process," Mr Ingram concluded.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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