The Price of Democracy is $10,000 : Melbourne Indymedia

Three organisations dedicated to the promotion of democracy today called on the federal government to dump its bill that will see the limit for disclosed donations increase from $1,500 to $10,000.

Seizing on the recent release of donations made to political parties in the 2004/05 period from the Australian Electoral Commission, Democracy 4 Sale, Democracy Watch and the Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice jointly stated their staunch opposition to the proposed legislation.

“This legislation does nothing but pervert our democracy,” Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice Director Hammy Goonan said today. “By increasing the disclosure threshold for a donation to a political party from $1500 to $10,000 you are essentially announcing that our government's policies can be bought.”

“From a careful analysis of the donations released, we see that millions of dollars will unaccounted for in coming years,” said Dr Thompson of Democracy4Sale. “The current donation disclosure system is flawed. Now there will be even less transparency of political donations if the Senate passes the Howard government’s proposed amendments to the Electoral Act.”

The bill also includes measures such as barring prisoners serving a sentence of full-time detention from voting and to increasing the level of tax-deductible contributions to a political party or candidates from $100 to $1,500 in a year.

“How are these changes going to enhance our democracy?” ask Mr Goonan today, “People are being rewarded through tax breaks and anonymity for having a disproportionate level of influence.”

Democracy Watch's Brad Pedersen said, "the proposal is an invitation for corruption. As both the ALP and Liberal parties each have 9 state, territory and national branches across the nation, a donor can make a donation of $9,999 to each of the 9 branches without their identity ever being disclosed. So the total anonymous donation can be as high as $89,999. More concerning is that an anonymous donor can do this once every year, thereby making a total donation over a 3 year parliamentary term of $269,997, all without detection."

Available for comment are: Dr Norman Thompson (Democracy4Sale) on 0419 296 144; and Brad Pedersen (Democracy Watch) on 02 9977 4658 or 0415 897 483; Hammy Goonan (Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice) on 0402 072 653.