Via the Fake Left:
The Labor leader Bill Shorten has toughened his language on the Turnbull government’s proposed ban on foreign donations and other electoral law changes, declaring he will not support charities and not-for-profits being silenced.
Shorten’s remarks on Sunday follow a decision by the activist group GetUp to target the ALP in a new campaign urging members to lobby federal parliamentarians against the proposed laws.
GetUp described the call to action on the donations and electoral law bill, which it launched last Monday, as the “biggest week-long campaign” in its history.
The bill, introduced by the government last December, would ban foreign political donations, but it also contains curbs on not-for-profits which has mobilised opposition from GetUp, charities, the Greens and the Institute of Public Affairs, because the proposal will increase red tape, including requiring statutory declarations to check the identity of donors, and for charities to keep foreign donations separately so they are not spent on political advocacy.
The proposal is currently being scrutinised by a parliamentary committee.
With substantial grass-roots activism mobilised against the ALP, and the Greens already pledging to reject the bill, Shorten said on Sunday: “Labor has led the way on reforming political donations and removing foreign influence from the political process”.
“We’ll keep working with the government to ban foreign donations, which is already Labor policy,” he said.
“I believe we can clean up donations without silencing our charities and not-for-profits. Labor is not interested in laws which punish Australian charities”.
Sensible enough. The bill is vital to Aussie democracy and a solution to the overly wide cast of the net should be possible.
