ALP state leader Peter Malinauskas vows to ban union and business political donations

Unions and big business would be barred from donating to political parties under a Labor bid to prevent a US-style cash arms race.

Donations from unions, businesses and others bankrolling state political parties would be outlawed under a Labor government in a bid to prevent a US-style cash arms race.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas is vowing that, if elected, Labor would draw up laws to prevent parties accepting donations for political operations and would seek bipartisan support.

State laws would not govern federal campaigns but they would cut off key traditional funding sources for both major parties.

Mr Malinauskas, who first publicly urged a donations ban in 2012 when he headed the powerful shop assistants’ union, told the Don Dunstan Foundation on Monday night that this was the one measure that would improve public confidence in institutions.

SA Labor Leader Peter Malinauskas wants to ban outside political donations. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

“We should ban donations for all elections. That’s right – no more private money for political parties’ campaigns. Not business money, not union money,” he said.

“I want this state election (on March 19) to be the last state election where private money plays any role.”

Any political party receiving public money under South Australia’s election funding system would need to adhere to the donation ban, like parties now agree to campaign spending caps.

Mr Malinauskas said this should be achieved without extra cost to taxpayers and declared it vital that any laws respected the implied constitutional right to political communication.

Most recent electoral disclosures show the ALP’s SA branch received $603,000 in 2019-20 and the Liberal Party’s SA division received $748,034, including $350,000 in total from key donors Ian and Pamela Wall.

At the 2018 election, Mr Malinauskas’s campaign for his inner-western Adelaide seat of Croydon attracted two donations from the Transport Workers’ Union – a total of $25,000.

Mr Malinauskas said the proposed ban also would outlaw donations for state parties from their fundraising arms – Labor’s SA Progressive Business in 2019-20 pumped $67,535 into the state branch.

In 2012, Mr Malinauskas told The Advertiser that donations to political parties should be “severely restricted” as part of dramatic electoral funding reforms to avoid a “political arms race” before elections.

“Put bluntly, this means if Labor wants to restrict corporate and business donations, it must also accept the restriction on union donations, including union affiliation fees, and vice-versa with the Liberal Party,” he said.

Former Premier Jay Weatherill introduced election funding reforms in 2015. Picture: AAP Image

A month later, then-Liberal opposition leader Isobel Redmond said she was developing a policy that banned cash and corporate donations to political parties, while capping individual payments.

In 2013, then-Labor premier Jay Weatherill announced state election funding reforms, including offering political parties up to $2.1m each in taxpayer funding and imposing stringent rules on disclosing donations. These were introduced in 2015.

Later that year, a NSW ban on property developers making political donations was upheld by the High Court.

Treasurer Rob Lucas accused Mr Malinauskas of delivering “another joke” by again producing a thought bubble without details of delivering the policy.

“If you’re going to be a leader you’ve got to be prepared to say this is what I stand for and this is what I’d do,” Mr Lucas said.

Banning donations had significant legal issues, some of which Mr Malinauskas had identified, but other pitfalls had not been expressed.

Mr Lucas said these included a loophole that would mimic the US system, by allowing independently wealthy people like Donald Trump to fund their own campaigns and gain an advantage.