Unions NSW is taking the government to court, claiming that restricting political donations to individuals is an infringement of the implied constitutional right of freedom of political speech.
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Another year, another round of media failures on campaign finance
The release of donations data should be one of the year’s biggest dumps of hot political news. It’s high time the mainstream media stopped turning a blind eye and started asking questions.
READ MOREAEC donor dump: who paid out for the parties in 11-12
It’s poor, inconsistent and late — but we finally have a glimpse of who donated to political parties in 2011-12. So who did the shooters donate to?
READ MOREWhat would a politically charged Rinehart do? Read the book
Gina Rinehart’s new self-published book offers some unique insights into the mining billionaire. What if she decided to spend more of her fortune on political activism?
READ MOREMedia dooms Faulkner’s ambitious transparency agenda
John Faulkner’s agenda for political transparency has been ignored in favour of his comments on NSW Labor, but it’s in the media’s interests to gain transparency. Why turn a blind eye?
READ MOREQld Labor ends electoral arms-race — just when the LNP benefits
Queensland Labor enters the 2012 election without one of its key campaigning tools of recent years. The party’s success has been built on massively outspending its opponents. New laws bring that to an end just when the tables were turned.
READ MORECheck your maths, and your letterbox
You can learn a lot from digging through 12 years worth of Australian Electoral Commission filings …
READ MOREThe rise and rise of mining company donations
Big mining money has shifted behind the Coalition and poses a serious threat to Labor if maintained.
READ MOREMore evidence of why donation disclosure laws are hopeless
For several years now Crikey has engaged in the ritual denunciation of our Commonwealth electoral donation laws. It’s worth repeating.
READ MOREElectoral funding figures show Labor’s donations collapse
Labor’s donations advantage vanished at the 2010 election, new data from the Australian Electoral Commission shows.
READ MOREKroger joins call to ban political donations … it’s prawns, Moet and satire for yachties …
They call him ‘the Pope’, Don Farrell is number six on our list of Political Fixers. Also Michael Yabsley gets the backing of Liberal Party grandee Michael Kroger over banning political donations, it’s prawns, Moet and satire for the yachties at Hamilton and Phil Green’s chance to give back.
READ MOREThe Power Index: Yabsley says ‘ban political donations’
Former Liberal Party treasurer Michael Yabsley, who has raised millions of dollars to fund Liberal election campaigns, has called for a complete ban on political donations by big business, trade unions and property developers.
READ MOREWhat WAS Bronwyn Bishop smoking?
The tobacco industry is unlike any other donor as its products kill people – but this has not stopped all parties from accepting their generous donations. And it didn’t stop Bronwyn Bishop harassing witnesses at a Joint Standing Committee inquiry last week, writes Anne Jones.
READ MORECampaign xenophobia driven by foreign donations ban
Almost everyone in mainstream politics says they oppose xenophobia, but foreigners have few friends among advocates of campaign finance reform, writes Andrew Norton, a research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies.
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READ MOREThe political donations data is nowhere near the full picture
The material released this week by the Electoral Commission only gives a partial picture of who is funding our political parties.
READ MOREMiners big on donations, but not on disclosure
Several companies and individuals have been identified in Liberal and Labor documents as making donations, but were not recorded on the AEC website as having made any returns, as they’re required to do.
READ MOREPolitical donations: SA and Tassie rolling in election dough
Political donations data released by the Australian Electoral Commission yesterday shows a multi-million jump in donations for South Australia and Tasmania — the two states that held elections over the audit period.
READ MORERhiannon: the hidden millions in political donations
Comparing the AEC data for NSW with the disclosures to the NSW Election Funding Authority (EFA) reveals some interesting trends in political donating and underlines the need for far reaching political funding reform, writes Lee Rhiannon, a Greens NSW Senator-elect.
READ MOREMining the donations: Palmer returns as $1 million Tory sugar daddy
Billionaire Queensland mining magnate Clive Palmer ratcheted up his political donations to the conservative side of politics to over $1 million in 2009-10, despite the Liberal Party declaring his cash persona non grata mid-way through the audit period, according to data released by the Australian Electoral Commission this morning.
READ MOREPolitical donations give and take
The Australian Electoral Commission released political donations data today for 2009-10, giving us an insight into what political parties received from donors between 7 and 19 months ago.
READ MOREMayne on donations: Vic Libs still richest political division in the country
The Victorian Liberals clearly remain the richest political division in the country. No one else can claim to own $50 million worth of shares.
READ MORENSW Nats put it on the platinum
$50,000 will get you in the door to talk to Premiers and Leaders of the Opposition in NSW. Or you can give it to the NSW Nats and visit “sunny Port Macquarie”.
READ MOREPolitical finance … NSW leads the way (again)
Public funding, while giving a small leg up to some minor parties, has not prevented an arms race between the major parties, writes Graeme Orr, an author and associate professor at UQ Law School.
READ MOREBig Tobacco not just in Liberal pockets — Crikey reveals the Labor links
The Coalition has been exposed this week for its links to Big Tobacco. But Labor members are no clean-skins when it comes to accepting cash from the cigarette industry.
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