The Menzies Research Centre has released the findings of a study which shows that left-leaning organisations spend a combined $160 million a year on political campaigning, with unions accounting for about $121 million of this expenditure. In contrast, organisations that are affiliated with the conservative side of politics spend just $46 million a year on campaigning. From The Australian:
Tony Shepherd, former president of the Business Council of Australia, said the imbalance put at risk Australia’s future prosperity, as “bad things happen when good people don’t speak up”…
Vocal campaigning from the left also fuelled a populist approach from the Senate crossbench, he said, which led to high-spending, high-taxing policies that were anti-enterprise and anti-growth…
Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the well-funded “anti-business agenda” was a risk not just for corporate Australia, but for all Australians…
Arguing the campaign funding gap had “distorted” the political debate, Australian Industry Group chief Innes Willox said the disparity was “unhealthy for democracy”…
This is misleading analysis. Since when does revenue account for political campaigning? How about instead counting the paid lobbyists in Canberra, and who they are paid by, for a truer indication of who is wagging the policy dog?
The concern over the $121 million in revenue received by the unions is also curious, given trade union membership has fallen to record lows, according to data released earlier this month by the ABS:
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Trade union membership for employees and OMIEs has generally declined since 1992. From August 1992 to August 2016, the proportion of those who were trade union members in their main job has fallen from 40% to 15% (43% to 13% for males and 35% to 16% for females).
Presumably, the conservative side of politics won’t be happy until union membership falls zero.
Political lobbying and donations are important issues for sure, since they can influence outcomes, erode democracy, and act as a soft form of corruption. But it’s a bit rich for the conservative side of politics to complain given the concerted industry campaigns run against the mining tax, the banking levy, and negative gearing reform.
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
