October 22, 2014. MEDIA RELEASE
Late last night the Liberal Government's political donations legislation passed the Legislative Council.
Despite The Greens successfully amending parts of the legislation, the bill fails to comprehensively lock the door on corruption in NSW.
Greens Democracy Spokesperson and Member for Balmain Jamie Parker said, "Democracy should be a contest of ideas, not a contest of cash."
"The Government and Labor blocked Greens amendments that would have made substantial reductions to the amount of political donations and election campaign spending.
"Both Labor and Liberal parties failed to kick their addiction to big spending elections.
"Failing to reduce overall election expenditure means the incentive to maximise political donations remains," said Mr Parker.
The Greens moved to reduce donations from a maximum of $5700 for a party and $2400 for a candidate down to $1500 and $500 respectively. The Greens also moved to cut millions of dollars from the cap on election expenditure.
"Labor and the Government united to block these amendments, showing how empty their promises are on ending the corrosive influence of money politics on our democracy.
"While the Government's increases in penalties and sanctions inched laws in the right direction, they have failed to significantly reduce political donations, overall election spending and adequately improve transparency.
"As this legislation is only in place for the 2015 election, The Greens remain committed to tackling corruption and cleaning up the undue influence of political donations in NSW," concluded Mr Parker.
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