< As for the Liberals, we think that, regardless of how much money Coles and Woolworths or BHP and Rio Tinto give, they will have more sway over them than we do. After all the big three mining companies did not change Labor's mining tax by donating money to them. >

Rick, they would have less sway if they were not allowed to give donations, and all political funding came from the public purse.

Political donations sit in stark contrast to the very principle of democracy. Big donations DO indeed buy big favours and bias our political motivations and directions very significantly.

Sure, doing away with big donations wouldn’t cure this bias, but it would help enormously.

ALL political funding needs to come from neutral sources! No donations should be allowed at all!

Now, if Labor and Libnat had colluded on this sleazy deal to increase their funding with the direct intention of moving away from receiving big donations from big and powerful companies, then I would have been all for it.

Basically I’d be in favour of just about whatever it takes to move our political parties out from under the thumb of the vested-interest manically-pro-expansionist-forever big business sector.

This is crucial to our future.

Ludwig - Basically I’d be in favour of just about whatever it takes to move our political parties out from under the thumb of the vested-interest manically-pro-expansionist-forever big business sector.

I've canvassed quite a few on that exact issue, typical response goes something like '. I'm a politician, you can trust us'. Occasionally one will go into the benefits of stable gubmunt (read 'we can do whatever we want without fear of having to account for our actions'), or economic growth (read 'our contributors & cronies can fleece the sheeple even more than they have to date'). When pressed about their utter ineptitude, the typical response goes 'if you don't like what we are doing you can always vote us out in a few years (read 'we'll rip the sheeple off as much as humanly possible & line our own pockets at the same time before we allow you to hand the reins over to our compatriots for their turn at fleecing you mob')

political parties need money to operate, our democracy needs political parties, or some form of movement. Especially large donations come with implied fair or better treatment by the party holding office, or a belief that the ideology of the party is different to others and thus should become the dominating party in the donors eyes.

However what ever treatment is metered out should not by legislation provide support that allows a monopoly political system to flourish at the expense of representative minorities.

The public of course do see the new Queensland style politics where all and sundry are sacked while we build simultaneously a huge brand new building to house the sweethearts in Brisbane, when the health system is RS and the pollies are building themselves a new mansion, all semblance of trust is ruined.

If we had politicians we could trust then we could trust the debate...but alas they are few and far between. self interest you can trust..nev

Nev - If we had politicians we could trust

Thats the key point that the sheeple appear incapable of grasping. Fact is that human nature mitigates against power & trust. Yankee SCI-FI writer David Brin had a VERY relevant re-take on the old Lord Acton 'power corrupts' concept with 'It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.'

OK, so our culture has evolved to believe we need some mugs in positions to run stuff & to date we haven't been able to come up with a better idea than a mob bloodsucking parasites. Personally I figure anarchy as the only thing we haven't tried would be a significant improvement but thats a story for another day. Problem is that we insist on giving persons inclined to have suspect morals (ie failed lawyers / failed priests / union heavies) control of things light years beyond their ability (academically, intellectually & morally). Treasurers are another issue, we wouldn't even dream of retaining an untrained, unqualified & inexperienced beancounter for even the smallest business but we don't bat an eyelid at certifiable lunatics like the dying duck messing with billions of taxpayer money. Worst still, we have failed to develop a robust control mechanism whereby we, as the ultimate bosses, can hire or fire our elected servants at OUR instigation.

Yes, we critically need to regain some faith and respect in our pollies and government.

Labor is in such a dire predicament. They are going down with a bigger crash than any major political party has ever experienced in this county.

Unless…..

They make a full-on effort to regain a modicum of trust from the voters.

While most people seem to think that Labor is too far gone to be able to do this, I think that just the opposite is true.

Abbott’s mob hardly has a better reputation in this regard at all, so there is an enormous opportunity for Labor to regain the upper hand.

Just imagine, if Labor was to assert that they would do everything possible to stop the boats, reduce immigration right down to close to net zero, concentrate on achieving a paradigm of sustainability in Australia, dump compulsory preferential voting and install the optional preferential system and…

…abolish donations and implement a funding system from the public purse, with a strong bias towards big business which now voluntarily gives money to the government (and opposition), so that approximately the same level of funding is secured, but in a neutral manner.

And there is one more thing – they need to install a new leader, who doesn’t have any baggage and is currently little-known, who can confidently lead Labor in this new direction, who has an excellent track record of espousal of the right sorts of policies over many years and who is highly articulate, intelligent and has a strong impressive persona and presentation.

Luckily for Labor, they have such a person; the member for Wills, Kelvin Thomson.

Labor has got nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing this.

Ludwig - Labor has got nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing this

To my way of thinking thats a quite reasonable conclusion, however considering the caucus millstone, its difficult to imagine the ALP ever getting its act together. Pity really, even though I'd have no hesitation in sticking pins in a JooLIAR doll (or a RAbbott one for that matter) if I knew voodoo, our so-called democracy relies on an opposition & hence at least two political parties. Problem is they have never been truly 'independent' of each other.