[Greens-Media] Media release: NSW must have a public debate on election funding, not an insider stitch-up

[John Kaye]

NSW must have a public debate on election funding, not an insider stitch-up

Media release: 5 May 2014

The Greens welcome the focus on publicly funded elections but are calling for it to go beyond just the leaders of political parties.

Greens NSW MP John Kaye said: "The leaders of two political parties that are struggling under dark clouds of alleged and proven corruption are not well placed to develop models that clean up NSW politics.

"No conversation between Premier Mike Baird and Opposition Leader John Robertson will solve the crisis that is eating away at the moral authority of NSW politics.

"This must be a genuine public debate that goes beyond the Coalition and Labor.

"Ending the culture of politics for sale is an urgent priority but any public funding model has to address the complex issues of third party advertising.

"Both the Labor party and the Coalition have powerful and well-cashed up friends who would be willing to arrange and fund advertising for the party that gave them the best deal.

"The worst outcome would be a publicly funded model that pushed corporate money out of the regulated donations environment into unlimited private spending on promoting political parties.

"The auction for policy would have only moved from campaign donations to third party spending.

"Within the limits of what the High Court would allow, any publicly funded model must impose much tighter restrictions all political advertising in election periods.

"Any formula for distributing public funds must also allow new parties to put their case to the voters.

"Corruption scandals involving Labor and the Coalition cannot be used as an excuse to lock in the status quo and exclude diversity and change from the political landscape.

"Neither Premier Mike Baird nor Opposition Leader John Robertson should be allowed to hide from responsibility for the sins of their parties behind vague support for a model that might never work and might contain massive loopholes.

"It's clear that the community wants substantial reductions in the amount of money spent on elections.

"Voters are sick of the big-spending advertising arms races that produce almost no information and even less truth.

"Public funding should be adequate to ensure that every party can communicate what it offers and how it differs from the others and no more.

"The public would not be interested in seeing money diverted from hospitals and schools into attack ads and smear campaigns," Dr Kaye said.

For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455

John Kaye
Greens NSW MP

P: (02) 9230 2668 | F: facebook.com/john.kaye.mlc<http://www.facebook.com/john.kaye.mlc> | T: @johnkgreens<twitter.com/johnkgreens> | W: www.johnkaye.org.au<http://www.johnkaye.org.au>
Mail: Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

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