Labor threatens deal with Greens on electoral reforms

Anthony Albanese has declared openness to changing signature electoral reforms after the Labor government pulled its legislation on Thursday.

Anthony Albanese at a press conference at Parliament House on Friday. ‘We will look for other paths and roads to success’ in donations reforms, he said. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Anthony Albanese has declared that if Labor needs to change its signature electoral reforms to gain the Senate’s support “we will”, after the government pulled its legislation from the notice paper on Thursday out of fear it could not land an agreement with the Coalition in time for the vote.

And, in veiled threat to the opposition that the government would work with the Greens and left-leaning independents should it need to, the Prime Minister revealed he had “committed to the crossbench” to discuss how to progress the bill.

“We thought that the Coalition were going to support the agenda to take big money out of politics. That’s what we want to do. Now that path became a cul-de-sac,” Mr Albanese said.

“We will look for other paths and roads to success … what you’ll see over the break is further discussions certainly. I’ve committed to the crossbench to see if we can progress that reform.”

While many opposition MPs were encouraged to support the legislation by outcry over the reforms by the teal independents threatening their inner-city seats, several Coalition backbenchers said there was concern that Peter Dutton would make a “leadership call” and pass the bill without properly hearing out his party’s concerns.

Chief among those concerns were how the bill benefits unions and the burden a $1000 donation disclosure threshold would have on small business.

While there was speculation Mr Dutton – who negotiated directly with Special Minister of State Don Farrell during the last sitting fortnight – did not push ahead with a deal because of the disquiet among some in his party, Coalition sources said there were elements of the bill that still needed to be clarified by the government.

These included how “peak bodies”, particularly unions, were treated differently to political parties when it came to caps on spending and donations.

When asked how the government would move forward with the laws – which were designed to keep “big money” from donors like Clive Palmer and Simon Holmes à Court out of politics – Mr Albanese said his government was prepared to change the legislation as part of “constructive” negotiations over the summer break with the Coalition or crossbench.

Mr Albanese indicated it was his government’s intention to return to parliament in February to pass the legislation, in the face of questions over whether he would call the federal election – due by May 17 – at the beginning of the year.

The delay in electoral reforms was seized upon by teal independents including North Sydney MP Kylea Tink, who urged the government to shelve the laws permanently.

“Allowing major parties to sandbag seats at risk with $90m in election funds, while limiting other candidates to just $800,000 in spending, is a crass attempt to reduce the chances of electoral success for minor parties and independents,” she said.