Palmer blitz triggers ALP donor cap call

Anthony Albanese has called for a cap on ‘obscene’ political donations in the wake of Clive Palmer’s $84m election ad blitz.

Anthony Albanese talks to David Speers on Insiders. Picture: Supplied

Anthony Albanese has called for a cap on “obscene” political donations following Clive Palmer’s $84m advertising blitz prior to last year’s federal election.

Speaking on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, the Opposition Leader called the spend an “extraordinary abuse” and announced Labor would push for a donation cap and stronger disclosure laws at a federal level.

“It’s quite clear that Australians are losing faith with the political system, and when an individual can spend $80m, our democracy shouldn’t be for sale,” Mr Albanese said.

He explained that although Australians should still be able to donate to political candidates, “obscene” amounts of money should be ruled out.

Labor MP Milton Dick, a member of the joint standing committee on electoral matters, backed Mr Albanese’s calls and said Australians were “crying out for transparency” after the election.

“In light of the obscene amount of money entering into politics as a result of the Clive Palmer experiment, in order to rebuild trust the community is looking at this issue very seriously,” Mr Dick said.

“Across the country people ­expect not only the issue of dark money, but some billionaires trying to buy influence, to stop.”

This was echoed by Mr Dick’s Labor colleague and fellow committee member, Carol Brown, who told The Australian a cap on donations would increase transparency while strengthening the integrity of the electoral system.

Mr Albanese told the ABC his proposed cap would be universal and apply to all donors, including the unions.

“Of course they would need to apply to everyone,” he said. “But I don’t know of any union that spent $80 million on a campaign, or any individual, or any business, apart from Clive Palmer.

“This is an extraordinary abuse. What we need is transparency, real-time donation reforms and disclosure.

“They should be able to donate but what they shouldn’t be able to do is to spend an obscene amount of money, which is what we saw in order to change a political outcome.”

But Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told The Australian the nation already had a ­robust system to regulate the disclosure and ­reporting of political donations.

“All Australians are entitled to participate in the democratic process, including by financially supporting candidates and political parties standing for election,” Senator Cormann said.

He also seized on Mr Albanese’s comments to attack Labor over union donations, declaring they made up a “very significant proportion of overall donations” to the party.