Banning donations from bad people should be encouraged.
It would mean that churches and other religious organisation could not donate to political parties.

Anyone who donates to a political party wants something in return. Ban all donations to political parties. They want the big prize; they can raise their own money.

and just how can they raise their own money without any donations??

I did not think that I would ever agree with something said by "ttbn" but banning ALL political donations is the only way to bring democracy back to our flawed political system.
A scenario for this would be;
Ban All donations to individuals and parties standing for election.
Allow a set time each week for each party on the ABC to air their views and policies.
Provide a set amount of money to cover the costs of mounting an election campaign to each party.
Only allow money from the election funding provided to, be used in the election campaign.

Unfortunately this is so unlikely to happen that we are going to be governed by corporations and rich individuals for the foreseeable future.

The High Court were never going to give a moral judgement, they were reviewing the constitutionality and validity of the NSW law which is exactly as it should be.

Having said that, I agree that all and every donation to a political party should be constantly and transparently available for public scrutiny, online and in real time.

We saw, belatedly the very odd situation where Australian Water Holdings gifted money to the Liberal Party at a time when a Liberal Party insider was their Chairman and at the same time, was Treasurer of the Liberal Party in NSW. That should have been available for public scrutiny instantly particularly as the person in question was evidently unaware that the donation had been made or received.

I believe the only way this can be managed is by banning all such secret donations/brown paper bags and the corruption they invite?

A better more transparent model has to be crowdfunding, which conceivably can deal both developers and unions out, given a large donation usually involves the expectation of some sort of outcome/preferential treatment?
Rhrosty.