Political Donations and Safeguards Code

The work discusses the development of a 'Code' that provides an alternative to the current political donations and expenditure system in Australia. The work is in three parts. The first part discusses how such a Code could become law in Australia. The middle part of the work sets out the detail of the draft model Code. The Code takes the form of draft legislation. At the outset, the author makes it clear that 'the model has not as yet undergone the constructive process of independent...
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The work discusses the development of a 'Code' that provides an alternative to the current political donations and expenditure system in Australia. The work is in three parts. The first part discusses how such a Code could become law in Australia. The middle part of the work sets out the detail of the draft model Code. The Code takes the form of draft legislation. At the outset, the author makes it clear that 'the model has not as yet undergone the constructive process of independent review, which it must submit to before a final format of the model can be settled upon'. The author has set out in the model Code the detail of how the Code would work, with caps on the maximum amount a donor can donate and on the maximum amount of political expenditure that can be made in any year on a per candidate basis. It also limits the source of donations to only 'eligible voters'. The final section provides a background discussion of the factors that underpin the motivation to completely revise the law regarding political donations and political funding in Australia. The author argues for an end to the public funding of candidates, groups and political parties and instead, for the application of such Commonwealth funding towards a new 'donation and expenditure processing function' and a new 'election material dissemination service'.