Michael McGuire: [Morrison is] just the latest inadequate incumbent of a system that has relentlessly undermined itself

No single phrase better sums up the Prime Minister’s attitude to this job than, “I don’t hold a hose, mate”, writes Michael McGuire.

Scott Morrison’s now infamous Hawaiian holiday happy-snap as bushfires raged across Australia.

The reasons behind the continual eroding of people’s faith in politics and politicians are many and varied.

To some it’s the unwillingness of leaders such as Prime Minister Scott Morrison to acknowledge responsibility for actions and decisions taken by the government. See Robodebt (a $1 billion lawsuit but no one is to blame), Craig Kelly (not a fan of science) or the nation’s quarantine system.

If you are looking for a single phrase to sum up Morrison’s attitude to the prime ministership it would be: “I don’t hold a hose, mate,’’ the words he famously uttered from his Hawaiian holiday while great portions of Australia burned to the ground.

But it’s a problem broader than just Morrison. He’s just the latest inadequate incumbent of a system that has relentlessly undermined itself over the last few decades through both Liberal and Labor administrations.

Another problem is that Australia’s political system is increasingly geared towards the wealthy and granting access to mates with large chequebooks.

A report this week from the Centre for Public Integrity further highlights the danger and the threat posed to democracy. The Centre examined the numbers from the data released by the Australian Electoral Commission for the 2019-20 financial year and found $49.6 million or almost 30 per cent of the income of political parties had come from an “unexplained origin’’. It’s dark money.

If we take as a starting point that political parties are not charities then it’s safe enough to assume that people and corporations who give money might expect something in return.

So we have almost $50 million out there asking for a political favour. And we don’t know who is doing the asking.

The problem is exacerbated because more and more money is pouring into the system. The growth in party income leading into the two most recent elections illustrates the point. Party income in 2015-16 was $189.4 million, of which $91.2 million was hidden away. In 2018-19, income had grown to $434.6 million of which $114.2 million came from obscured sources.

There are many ways in which donors can hide their gifts. The threshold above which you have to report a donation to a federal political party is $14,300 and you can make multiple donations below that level without attracting attention. Many more make donations through attending high-price dinners put on by Labor and Liberal as fundraisers.

The risk is Australia will increasingly ape the problem in the United States which has a much bigger problem with dark money after a Supreme Court ruling in 2010 which abolished limits on how much individuals or corporations could spend on political campaigns.

That ruling allowed billionaires such as the Koch brothers to funnel untraceable money through non-profit groups, which passed on the money to support favoured candidates.

Australia’s accountability problem is broader than just the Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: David Caird

The Kochs have since spent hundreds of millions of dollars endorsing candidates, setting up think tanks, taking judges on “educational’’ junkets, buying university courses to influence national thinking and to drag their own far right wing ideology into the centre of national debate.

It’s a corrupt system and Australia needs to urgently introduce more transparency to our political donation legislation to avoid going down the same route where politics becomes the play thing of the rich.

At a federal level, the $14,300 threshold needs to be abolished, aggregation needs to be introduced, donations need to be public acknowledged in real time. The figures for the 2019 election were not revealed for almost a year. That’s not good enough. An electoral spending cap should be considered. As should increases to public funding to reduce reliance on private, secret money.

The question is whether Liberal and Labor have the intestinal fortitude to do much about it. Labor says it will reduce the threshold but both parties acted together last year to weaken disclosure laws when it came to property developers.

It creates a vicious circle. The wealthy can buy access that is denied to others. People then lose faith in a system they feel no connection to. But instead of MPs rising to the challenge and reforming the system, it seems easier to sink lower in line with lower public expectations. And so it continues.