[Greens-Media] RATENBURY MEDIA RELEASE: Big parties cash in on electoral reform Bill

[Jaques, Alison]

MEDIA RELEASE
Shane Rattenbury MLA, ACT Greens Member for Molonglo

27 November 2014

Big parties cash in on electoral reform Bill

Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury has rejected a Bill presented to the Assembly today that would increase public funding for ACT elections from $2 to $8 per vote and see political parties receive a financial windfall at the expense of the ACT's democracy.

"While the Greens support public funding of elections to reduce undue or corrupt influence, the public funding must serve as a replacement to large donations - not be in addition to them," said Mr Rattenbury

"Yet this Bill increases public funding from $2 per vote to $8 per vote while removing the restriction on the size of donations.

"The big parties want to see the $10,000 limit on donations removed; the Greens want that cap halved to $5,000. The big parties have given themselves a $1million budget for election campaigns; the Greens want to see election campaign spending cut to half a million for parties.

"It's unconscionable to ask ACT taxpayers to cough up for $1 million dollar election campaigns whilst the old parties tighten their grip around Canberra's democracy.

"While I supported the moves to reduce the per-candidate expenditure cap from $60,000 to $40,000, this will have limited effect when bigger parties can reap the benefits of pooling candidate funding to run million dollar campaigns, drowning out independents and smaller party groupings.

"A $500k cap on election spending would have created a genuine level playing field.  A million dollar cap just leaves the big parties playing the same game but this time with their snouts in the trough gobbling almost $700k of public funds each.

"The decision to increase public funding without reigning in party expenditure or restricting donations is ludicrous. It amounts to a net gain for the big political parties, and cannot be described as anything other than an unprecedented and unjustifiable act of self-interest.

"Until we see real limits on campaign expenditure and donations, it is untenable to ask members of our community to fork out for election campaign costs.

"Public funding of elections should deliver democratic benefits to the community, not just more cash to political parties." Mr Rattenbury concluded.
Statement Ends




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