It is a rare occasion that a labor government has a flash of brilliance and comes up with a ground breaking policy which has the potential to dramatically change the Australian political landscape forever. And this they have or at least will seriously consider –

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23533581-5006009,00.html

Hopefully banning all donation to all political parties will cancel out loud minority groups who give money to pollies so only as to get there agenda put ahead of the mainstream. We see this in Australia with regards to immigration with big business demanding hundreds of thousands of new immigrants so as to get more customers for there products. We also see it with the ACTU and extreme religious groups.

If banning all donations to political parties through out the world was done it would grantee a better place for the majority. For example if it was done in the United States, the gun lobby there would all of a sudden find tough new restrictions on guns, the Jews and Israel would have to start making a real effort on Palestine instead of there Jewish peace discussions “just talk and make it look like we are trying but achieve nothing” The agriculture lobby would also be torpedoed with not only more exports for Aussie farmers but also cheaper food prices for Americans.

If Kevin Rudd goes ahead with this it could be the greatest gift his government gives to the Australian people

Is this connected to the 4 corners report last night? There are laws of disclosure as I understand but they can be subverted, obviously.

This is just fiddling around the edges of our current system, which already had limits on dontations and compulsory disclosure. Our democracy was designed to overcome difficulties that no longer exist. There is significant scope for real reform that would improve participation and the responsiveness of government:

http://www.ozpolitic.com/electoral-reform/electoral-reform.html#direct-democracy

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080414-australian-government-wants-power-to-snoop-work-e-mail-ims.html

With ideas like this (and there have been quite a few of them recently) hell will freeze over before I admit the Labor party is doing anything good.

This crop are authoritarian to the core and seem to believe it's all ok for "the common good" or some such communist excuse.

Dear EasyTimes,

As all the news stories indicate - a total ban on private donations would be a great advance for Democracy.

But with Labor holding government everywhere in Australia, it benefits from the advantage incumbents always have in fundraising -

Do you really think it's likely to every happen?

cont'd ...

Elections cost so much money. Wouldn't it be political suicide to
pass such legislation?

You need money - lots of it - to succeed in politics.

I can't see any political party killing the 'goose that lays the golden eggs' (i.e. political donations). Especially a party that now has the advantage of being in power throughout Australia.

Duh...