Australia risks plunging into “dangerous populism” unless political donation laws are urgently addressed.
It’s one view shared at an inquiry into this year’s federal election, which is exploring if campaign funding laws need to be tweaked.
Existing laws mean only donations more than $14,500 must be publicly disclosed, and there are no spending caps.
The government is considering lowering that figure to $1000 and ensuring those donations are declared in real-time.
But UNSW’s Belinda Edwards said Australia should be concerned wealthy individuals can “distort” the political process, adding billionaire Clive Palmer could have made a much bigger impact at the election if he’d used his resources more effectively.
Mr Palmer spent an estimated $100 million on his United Australia Party campaign, securing a single Senate seat.
“We had a reasonably populist government being challenged by … people not using their resources that well,” Dr Edwards told the inquiry.
“The scope for the sorts of outcomes we’re seeing in the US, if we look forward two or three years and the likelihood we’re going to go into a severe economic downturn and the context of a more dangerous international environment and a growing set of social challenges … the risks of the rise of dangerous populism are really very evident.”
Professor George Williams was just as scathing, saying Australia had failed for two decades by not fixing a “broken” campaign finance system.
He said the system allowed for soft corruption in the form of big money being exchanged for access and policy outcomes, while also threatening public confidence in the political system.
Prof Williams argued a system that capped donations at around $5000 was appropriate.
“Within that framework, you essentially have the guardrails of a system that seeks to remove the distorting influence of very large donations by providing disclosure and transparency,” he said.
“I don’t support removing donations, I just think it’s appropriate to regulate it given the dangers of not doing so.”
Constitutional law professor Luke Beck said Australia should try and remove the influence of big money from politics by implementing a spending cap similar to Queensland’s.
State election candidates in Queensland can only spend just over $60,000 each on their campaigns.
“There’s this idea about levelling the playing field so smaller parties and independents have some chance of a fair fight,” he said.
“If there’s a limit on what you can spend, there’s no need to spend all your energy shaking down rich people for money and keeping other donations and fundraising efforts secret.”