Clean up Canberra Corruption HQ - Jacqui Lambie Network Skip navigation
  1. Home
  2. Issues
  3. Clean up Canberra Corruption HQ

They don't want change

When it comes to rorting the system, the Liberal and Labor parties are as bad as each other. What I'm proposing will go a long way towards fixing the system. But the only way it happens is with public pressure.

Can you chip in to help me create that pressure?
$10 $27 $50 $100 $270 $500
Donate

Money and politics are a bad mix


You know we have a problem here. Our political system is being bought out from right under our noses.

No more brown paper bags full of cash. No more extortions from lobbyists who get their way by threatening to pull money out of the major parties’ political campaigns. No more hiding behind our shoddy donations laws.

Lots of people have been asking for better donations disclosures for years. Researchers, think tanks and advocates have called on the Government to fix this ever since John Howard changed the rules so that people wouldn’t be told about any donations worth less than $10,000.

None of those people have the power of a swing vote. I do, and I’m going to get this done.

Ways to take action:


We’re going to make it stop

I’ve got a bill that will completely reshape how political donations are dealt with in Australia.
It would be the biggest reform to donations law in decades.


Current Rules

Only donations worth $14,000 or more need to be disclosed.

Parties can avoid disclosing donations when donors make multiple payments under the threshold -- for instance by giving $13,999 one day and the same amount the next.

Tickets to political party fundraising dinners are counted as an ‘other receipt’ – the same as if they were an investment return or money from a public body.

The Australian Electoral Commission randomly audits donations disclosures and requests changes where necessary.



N/A – no equivalent




N/A – no equivalent




My Plan

Donations worth $2,500 or more will be disclosed.

Parties and other political organisations have to make a disclosure if a donor gives them more than $2,500 in a six month period – no exceptions.

Payments for fundraising dinners will be counted as what they are – a donation.

Parties and donors will be required to disclose donations through an online portal that will automatically consolidate and check the information provided.

The Australian Electoral Commission will have additional investigatory and monitoring powers.

Parties and other campaigners will need to set up a special account that will be their exclusive means of paying for their political campaigns. The only way to get money into the account will be to transfer it to the account through the disclosure portal.

To protect people who want to give small amounts to campaigns they care about, parties and other campaigners can take anonymous donations of $500 or less if they record certain details about the event where the donations were received.



Give me your endorsement and let's get this done.

I can't make this happen without you.

Goal: 2,500 Endorsements

1,040 Endorsements

Will you endorse my plan?

The bill that Senator Jacqui Lambie has proposed will reform our political donation laws. I endorse her plan, and I call on the Parliament of Australia to make it law.



Donations are only one piece of the puzzle...




We still don't have a Federal ICAC

We still don't have a Federal ICAC

80% of Australian want a federal anti-corruption watchdog, but we’re not getting one.

On any other issue with 80 per cent public support, you’d see politicians falling over themselves to get it done. For some reason when it comes to an anti-corruption watchdog, that’s not what we’re seeing. Instead the Liberals are doing the old go-slow with their watered-down integrity commission and Labor still haven’t designed their own alternative model, despite publicly endorsing a federal ICAC four years ago.

Lobbyists are running rampant

Lobbyists are running rampant

Politicians go from being a Minister to a lobbyist in the blink of an eye – and there’s nothing we can do about it.

There are dozens of examples of politicians going from politics to private business in the space of a few days. It smells like corruption when your future employer is asking you for a policy change, you make the policy change, then you’re on their books a week later. And we’re not protected against this sort of corruption in any way. Lobbyists aren’t regulated in any meaningful way. They can walk around Canberra’s offices without ever so much as signing a visitor’s book. Their meetings are never disclosed. They don’t have to disclose who they’re working on behalf of. And in fact, most of the lobbying happening today – those people don’t even need to register as lobbyists. Canberra needs a cleanup.

Dark money is buying our elections

Dark money is buying our elections

40% of the money buying our elections is never reported.

That’s more than $60 million in dark money flowing to our political parties that we’re never going to know about. We won’t know who’s giving it, what it’s funding, and why they’re giving it in the first place. We’ve got less transparency over the funding of our elections than the public expects and we’ve got silence from both the ALP and the Liberals as to why. Australia’s donation disclosure laws are among the weakest in the developed world – and every year we let them rot a little more.

I’ve done my homework on this

I’ve worked on this for years. I’ve read every report, every submission, every article and idea I can find.

I’ve spoken to the experts – in politics, law, academia, law enforcement. It’s that leg work that’s led me to believe that this is only plan that will work. You can’t just do one bit and not the others, like some of my political colleagues want to do every now and then. You’ve got to do it all at once.

We’re going to get that done. Because the mega-rich have the cash to corrupt the political system and buy favours for them, put up rules that hurt their rivals and raise prices for their customers. I don’t come from money. I don’t like seeing money deciding who runs the show. Those days are over.

Give special interests a kick in the ass

Our political system is being bought and sold from right under our noses.

  • We still don't have a Federal ICAC
  • Lobbyists are running rampant
  • Dark money is buying our elections
I'll endorse your reforms

Cashed up corporations are giving big to our political parties because they’re smart. They call it a donation, and know it’s an investment.