Councillor Chris Harris

Like many other NSW Greens councillors I put a motion to the City of Sydney Council to try to improve the transparency surrounding election funding in the lead up to the Local Government elections in September.

The Lord Mayor and her party members plus the Liberal councillor failed to support the motion which simply called for an on-line register of donations with candidates being invited to provide continuous disclosure of donations of more than $200.  Under the Government’s new political funding bill, The Election Funding Amendment (Political Donations and Expenditure) Bill 2008, donations need only be disclosed every six months. This means that donations made to local government candidates in September would not need to be declared until February 2009 - five months after the election.

The Sydney Morning Herald picked up the story, running it on page 3 on August 6. See below.

Following is the motion and my accompanying speech.

Notice of motion - Cr Chris Harris
1. That Council maintain an on-line and easily accessible register of
political donations made to candidates for the 2008 Council election;

2. That Council, on closing of nominations, invite all candidates
for the up-coming Council elections to participate in the register;

3. That candidates be invited to provide continuous disclosure of all
donations made to the candidates of $200 or more including details of:
(a) the candidate or group to or for whose benefit the donation was made,
(b) the date on which the donation was made,
(c) the name of the donor,
(d) the suburb of the donor (in the case of an individual) or the address of the registered or other official office of the donor (in the case of an entity),
(e) the amount of the donation,
(f) in the case of a donor that is an entity and not an individual—the Australian Business Number of the entity.

4. That Council notes that this is a voluntary commitment for candidates in
the interests of providing genuine transparency as to the source of candidates’ election funding prior to eligible voters casting their compulsory ballot.

5. That the register allow for a candidate to participate in the register by including a notation to the effect that the candidate has not received any donations of $200 or more.

Speech on motion
While the State government dithers on political donations The Greens think it is important that this council declares its commitment to the utmost transparency on election funding.

Recent history involving councils and donations has been very disturbing with scandals involving developer donations at Wollongong and Shellharbour Councils leading to both councils being sacked. The Premier’s political funding Bill, The Election Funding Amendment (Political Donations & Expenditure) Bill 2008, is Labor’s response to this but it does not go nearly far enough to wind back the corrupting influence of political donations.

For the record The Greens believe that only donations from individuals should be allowed and that these donations should be capped at $1000. All donations of $200 and over should be disclosed within 3 working days of their receipt.  There should be a cap on what a candidate can spend and public funding should be made available for election campaigns

The Government’s new bill will not stop councillors hiding the source of their campaign funding for the September council elections if donations only need to be disclosed every six months. This election falls in the middle of the six-monthly disclosure cycle and so disclosure declarations are not due to be lodged until 23 February 2009.

Continuous disclosure would allow voters to see exactly where electoral funding is coming from at the time the donation is made. The local government ballot is compulsory so surely voters have a right to be in possession of all information relevant to the candidates before they cast their compulsory vote.

There also needs to be transparency on where the funding has come from if that funding has been channelled through political parties or special funds. As the Bill currently stands, only donations made to individual councillors, rather than those made to political parties or groups, are required to be disclosed by councillors at the twice yearly disclosure.

Donations to councillors could come via a party or fund that only needs to disclose those donations after six months, but in the meantime the councillor has benefited from the funds for his or her election campaign.

A readily accessible register of donations of $200 or more would be easy to set up and would send a message to voters that this council really is serious about representing the needs of their community rather than the special interests of financial donors.

Signing up to the register would be voluntary and allow candidates who have not received donations of $200 or more to declare such information.

I can’t see any real impediment to setting up an on-line register. It’s not a high-cost exercise, we have the resources to do it and it will benefit candidates who, because of the recent scandals involving councils, would surely want to promote their transparency.  In addition the public would appreciate The City’s efforts to provide such information.

I seek the support of councillors to have this disclosure register set up.

Moore votes down donations disclosure
Wendy Frew Urban Affairs Editor SMH
August 6, 2008

THE Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, has voted against a proposal for City of Sydney election candidates to regularly disclose political donations before the September 13 local government election.

At the City of Sydney Council meeting on Monday night, councillors debated a Greens motion that called on candidates to continuously disclose donations of $200 or more before polling day. The motion proposed also that the council maintain a public website of political donations made to candidates.

The mayor, all her party councillors and the only Liberal councillor, Shayne Mallard, combined to defeat the motion, which Labor and the Greens had supported.

The motion was flawed because it did not cover donations to central party headquarters and disadvantaged independent candidates, and sought to inappropriately use council resources for electioneering purposes, said Cr Moore, who has been a fierce critic of the State Government’s policy of funding election campaigns with donations from the corporate sector and, in particular, from developers. “The Clover Moore Independent Team will disclose donations before the election,” she said.

“In keeping with my nine previous elections, I and my team will not accept donations that create a conflict of interest and will return any donations that we subsequently suspect could compromise our integrity and independence.”

However, Greens Councillor Chris Harris said the mayor’s refusal to back his motion was in line with her previous stand on donations. “In 2004, the Clover Moore Party accepted $30,000 of dirty developer money that was laundered through the old Living City Party,” said Cr Harris.

“I was hoping that the Clover Moore party councillors would be part of the solution to the corrupting influence of corporate donations … it looks like they are part of the problem,” he said.