Campbell: Election funding changes will screw the taxpayer and the Teals

It will become apparent in coming days what nasties Farrell has hidden in his legislation but it’s already clear the effect of the changes will be to screw the taxpayer and the Teals.

Reform – it’s a word politicians use when they want to convince us they’re not just up to the usual scheming for advantage but have thought at least in passing about the common good.

When it comes to ‘reform’ of the rules for election funding however, it’s safe to assume the common good the authors have in mind is what’s good for them.

Unsurprisingly, the changes Senator Don Farrell, the wily powerbroker from South Australia, will unveil on Monday will advantage the major parties – especially Labor.

It’s no surprise that despite complaints about Australia’s electoral funding system going back decades, ‘reform’ only became urgent when things started to go wrong for the majors

As recently as 20 years ago, 85 per cent of Australians voted for the ALP or the Coalition – a proportion which by 2022 had shrunk to 68.28 per cent.

We don’t join them like we used to either.

Though the population has grown massively since the 1970s, the parties’ membership is a fraction of what it was back then.

Nor are political parties the only organisations struggling for members.

In recent decades the share of Australians telling the ABS they’re members of civil and political groups has fallen off a cliff – from 18.6 per cent in 2006 cent to 7.4 per cent in 2020.

What’s the traditional Australian response of an industry facing decline?

To call Canberra for a handout or some form of regulation to frustrate competition.

This goes double in a situation in which the people writing the cheques and the rules are the same people who will be banking the cheques and fighting elections under those rules.

It will become apparent in coming days what nasties Farrell has hidden in his legislation but it’s already clear from what has been briefed out the effect of the changes will be to screw the taxpayer and the Teals.

Under his legislation, payments to candidates for each vote they get will jump from $3.35 a vote to $5.

There will be nasties hidden in Senator Don Farrell’s legislations. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

There will also be a cap of $20,000 on the amount an individual can give in a year in campaign donations.

However according to a source familiar with the plan, there will be no cap on the amount an individual can give to a party in non-campaign donations.

It goes without saying it will be devilishly hard for the regulator to distinguish between campaign spending and non-campaign spending by parties.

It’s also, well, just plain bad luck, for independents who don’t have parties to park this cash in.

There will also be no limit to the amount political parties can receive in affiliation fees.

This will mean Labor will continue to receive millions each year from the union movement which won’t count as donations.

And though I have no evidence they are planning to, I suspect it will not be beyond their abilities to find a way for a union to receive money from third parties which ends up in the hands of the ALP.

This too is just plain bad luck for the Liberal and National parties which will have no access to this money.

More important than donation caps however are the spending caps Farrell is proposing.

Henceforth campaign spending will be capped at $90m for each party across a federal election cycle.

There will also be caps of $800,000 that can be spent on a campaign in any particular seat.

Which sounds like a lot until you remember the current Teal MPs raised and spent several hundred thousands of dollars more than that at the last election.

These caps will also apply to third parties whose spending will be limited to $11m in total.

In practice this will mean the Coalition will be able to draw on the support of Advance.

Labor on the other hand will be able to rely on GetUP! as well any union that wants to put its hand up.

In other words, from what we can see the overall effect of the changes will be to advantage the ALP or the Coalition just as similar laws in Victoria have done.

Despite their squealing, the current crop of Teals will probably be OK too, as they will be able to rely on their taxpayer-funded resources as incumbents (a subject for another day) as well as what they can raise.

But it’s hard to see how this doesn’t completely stuff the Teal model going forward, however, which suits both the majors – especially the ALP which in the long term has more to fear from Dai Lee-style independents.

But though it disadvantages them, don’t be surprised if the Coalition parties end up going along with it.

That’s because they fear that if they don’t do a deal, Labor will come to an arrangement with the Greens and the crossbench that will be much worse for them.

Originally published as Campbell: Election funding changes will screw the taxpayer and the Teals