Democracy is underpinned (officially) by the value of 'equal opportunity and equal representation' so I find it difficult to agree that democratic process is best served by the giving of money to selected political parties, in order to influence, to gain access to or to partially support political decision-makers.

If businesses give money to just some preferred political parties as selected 'donations', these are ill-disguised bribes and the practice should be banned by Australian law.

Gaming industry money has been used to 'stroke' governments for long enough. Tax-paying citizens have borne the social and economic on-costs of poker machines for long enough. The gaming industry has caused government to act irresponsibly, by ignoring public wish for long enough. Too often government has over-protected the giant gaming industry by ignoring legalities, such as our consumer trade laws. All citizens will still be paying the pokies costs, long after the current government representatives have retired....on higher superannuation payouts nevertheless....because they worked in league with this powerful industry. 'Donations' that pervert the course of democracy like this are simply CROOK!

Businesses could more fairly contribute to a 'communal party platform bank' if they genuinely feel inclined to influence the political process in a spirit of 'community partnership'. For example, gifted money via all businesses could be pooled and divided up pro rata, between all parties and individuals depending upon their support levels in the election just past.I bet that the AHA would hate doing THAT! It is WAY too fair!

“Donations to political parties distort the entire political process in Australia.”

Well…..of course they do.

Why would anyone give a donation? To win favours. And if they fail to win favours, they stop donating. It’s as simple as that.

So those that can afford to give big donations are those that win big favours. And that leads directly to a very strong bias towards aggressive businesses that are ruled by the short-term maximised profit motive.

A fundamental principle of our democratic system should be the complete elimination of donations and the funding of political parties from consolidated revenue. That is, from the tax base. They simply must be funded from a neutral source, in order to eliminate all implications of bias.

It befuddles me completely as to why our society tolerates political donations…. which really are nothing less than blatant bloody bribes!

The implications of this regime of political donations are enormous. In fact so enormous as to strongly undermine the very foundations of democracy.

The makers of VB should be contributing millions to aboriginal services because they have made so much money out of aborigines over the years.

Tldr but i will definately say this. You really have to look at the state of the US. The political system is absolutely crippled/corrupted by this.

I found a couple of articles about it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031002425.html

"Michael E. Toner, the chairman of the Federal Election Commission, has some friendly advice for presidential candidates who plan to be taken seriously by the time nominating contests start in early 2008: Bring your wallet.
"There is a growing sense that there is going to be a $100 million entry fee at the end of 2007 to be considered a serious candidate," Toner said in a recent interview."

http://www.nhinsider.com/nhigb/2007/5/11/2008-a-historic-election.html

"Look at what’s already happening a year and a half early. Candidates’ campaigns for President have already spent over $150 million during the first quarter of this year – over 1&1/2 years in advance of the ’08 elections! So, we’re looking at a race for President that’s already excessive – off the scale in terms of both time and money.

As long as big money dominates campaigns, people won’t count for much except as voters and consumers of media campaign buys. Candidates are caught up in a financial arms race. No one has yet had the guts to say “enough” -- not even one of the authors of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation"

Steel, if it's something you're interested in, go to www.corpwatch.org and key 'campaign donations' into the search box.

The US has shown us where this road leads, yet we're following it anyway. That really scares me.

ludwig (and many others), there's no "we, the people" in the australian constitution.

why are you unwilling to refer to oz as a 'parliamentary society'?

perhaps if you did, you would have to admit the processes of our society give little concern to the public good, simply because parliament was designed by the magnates of society for their own good.

on the other hand,if you assume democracy, nothing needs to be done, except whinge.

i've been thru 5 cycles of government now, with accompanying public attitudes of disgust, hope, disillusion, and disgust again. it seems to me everyone should have noticed by now that pollie rule is just getting us ever deeper into resource depletion, atmospheric pollution,over population, and possible racial suicide from global warming.

i am pretty sure that humanity is too dumb to survive the challenges ahead without massive convulsions- economic, military,and political. i am even more sure that relying on governments to provide leadership simply ignores history.

Of course the hotel industry would give big donations to the political party in power. It wouldn't matter one iota which party. There's lots of money to be made.

The arguments that the hotel industry can deliver on why they should be listened to are also powerful. State governments are addicted to the revenue earned from gambling. It is staggering.

State governments are limited in how they can raise money since handing over taxing the populace to the Federal government. Now State governments have to go begging for a slice of tax revenue collected.

There are two issues here. The issue of donations to political parties for access by business interests. And how State governments are vulnerable to the prospect of making money.

good article

the smoking thing bothers me most. it is staggering that despite there being case law in NSW where an employee (Marlene Sharp) sued her employer, port kembla RSL club (and won a sizeable settlement)after developing throat cancer whilst working in the club, it has not been banned outright indoors. surely there must be more cases for the slater and gordons of this world to (ambulance) chase up on that front??

I can choose to go to a club and not gamble but I cannot choose not to inspire the vile fumes generated by smokers and their filthy habit.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, Australia's political donation system may have many problems but it's still better than the alternatives. It's what Ms Rhiannon doesn't say that causes me to wonder if she has a secret agenda and what that agenda is. She's told us what she's against but is she really trying to put forward an argument in favour of public funding of political parties?
After 8 years as a state MP in WA, losing my seat in 2005 because of problems I had with the Liberal Party, I'm convinced that the only changes needed to our donation system are to make every donation larger than $1 public and to make sure as best as possible (newspaper advertisements perhaps) that everyone knows who gave how much to which party or candidate.
The issue is not where the money is coming from. It's all about how the influence which the money is clearly hoping to buy is applied after the party wins power or the candidate is elected. If the AHA donates money to a party which then wins government, the electorate needs to know the details of that donation so that, when decisions affecting the hotel industry are pending, the public and the media can scrutinise the issues and then the decisions.
My experience is that the Greens in WA don't want corporate donations mainly because they don't get any. Instead, they rely on large numbers of small donations of money (and huge donations of time) from their individual supporters, so why would they support any other form of campaign donations?