JSCEM Final Report into the 2022 Federal Election - 27 November 2023

27/11/23

I am really pleased to see this report being tabled and I support the recommendations in it subject to my additional comments in that report. The final JSCEM report repeats the recommendations in the interim report relating to transparency, truth and reducing money in politics and we have heard from the chair about the importance of those areas. With the report finalised, it is now time for government to respond to this report. I introduced a private member's bill called Restoring Trust after the interim report that contained 13 reforms that have really broad support of the crossbench, academics, democracy think tanks, civil society organisations and the community and it would be great to see the government actually responding to those reforms in a timely fashion. We have - a response is needed fairly quickly because if we are going to have these new reforms in place in time for the next election there needs to be time to develop those frameworks and ensure that political parties and others have time to make the necessary changes, so there is some urgency around it. The government has said it wants consensus on electoral reform but we have seen that the Opposition is opposing transparency and truth in its dissenting comments and public statements and also interested in designing caps that prevent future competition in politics and I would say in relation to this report it talks about caps and it does add in the final report and exemption from caps for charities. On caps design is really key and caps can have the impact of locking in the major parties. No-one wants to see a billionaire swaying the outcome of an election. And that has broad community support. But the 99.6 per cent of Australians who are not a member of a major political party don't want to see a reform that locks in the 2-party system. So, really, now the government has a choice. It can work with the opposition in responding to this report and potentially make some compromises on transparency and truth that the community really cares about and also put in place a caps structure that locks in that two-party system, or it does have the option of working with the crossbench and the Greens in both houses to come up with a package that meets community need and allows political competition. Communities will be watching closely to see whether the purpose of any reform packages to embed the two-party system will reflect community concerns about transparency and truth and restore trust in our electoral system by allowing political choice. So, I am glad to see this report being finalised and look forward to seeing the government responding to it in a timely fashion.

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