| Press Release: Fighting Dirty Donations |
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The Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice today launched their latest campaign targeting the influence that donations to political parties have on Australian politics.
“The research we’ve done is showing a direct correlation between donations to political parties and policy outcomes,” Centre director Hammy Goonan said today. “There are undue levels of influence being used by those that can afford it while the rest of the community’s needs continue to go unmet.” “We’re calling for more accountability and more transparency,” said Hammy Goonan. “Australia’s donation system is a free-for-all with very few limits on what can and can’t be donated. Our system is far behind the rest of the world in this regard.” The campaign is a collaborative project using a website with over 650 pages to track who donated to which party and attempts to unravel the web of political dealing that is associated with these donations. Anyone can edit the web site and the hope is that they will develop a community of editors to continue to expand the content. This impetus for this campaign comes in light of the proposed legislation that is currently before the Senate which will increase the limits imposed on disclosed donations from $1,500 to $10,000. The Website can be found at: www.lobbyocracy.org. Hammy Goonan is available for comment on 0402 072 653. |
