No limit on political donations to ACT political parties?

watto23 said :

One of the good side affects to the removing stamp duty and raising rates policy is that the ACT government will not rely on developers paying for new land to gain new income. It won’t stop the developers from doing their best to win favor, but releasing new land at a rate that maximises the developers profits and stamp duty will no longer be an issue.

Well, I’ve seen some positive spin in support of the avg.10% increases in Annual Rates pa for the next 20+ years, but that, really ? This is too long a bow to draw.

vintage123 said :

The campaigning cost a bomb, so if you do not allow donations, we will all pay more for it through a raise in taxes.

The ACT Labor/Greens Gov’t, supported by the ACT Liberals, voted their political parties a 4 times revenue rise when the increased the contribution from $2 to $8 per vote out of the ACT budget. That’s more taxes, Annual Rate & Gov’t charges rises for everyone – so we are already paying more for it. They could only get away with that in Canberra.

wildturkeycanoe said :

I honestly don’t believe any political party should be getting any funding from anyone for their campaigning, except from their own pocket. The little questionnaires we get in our mailboxes asking to comment on policies simply get tossed in the bin, either at home or when they get to the party office, not to mention the waste of postage costs. TV advertising can certainly do with some revamping as it is all just tit for tat smear campaigning. I’m so sick of politics and politicians ripping off tax payers to line their own pockets and do nothing for the people supporting them. Whilst they give themselves pay rises they slash the funding for welfare and needy people. Banning political donations altogether might just give the parties the power to do what the voters want, not what the business world, finance sectors and developers are pushing.

The campaigning cost a bomb, so if you do not allow donations, we will all pay more for it through a raise in taxes.

watto23 said :

One of the good side affects to the removing stamp duty and raising rates policy is that the ACT government will not rely on developers paying for new land to gain new income. It won’t stop the developers from doing their best to win favor, but releasing new land at a rate that maximises the developers profits and stamp duty will no longer be an issue.

While this is an issue in the ACT, its a far greater issue at national level. Politics is now run by those who donate the most, and stuff anyone else. The current government have been far too easy to read with regards to their policies, they try to hide the facts, but are not very good at it.

“Politics is now run by those who donate the most, and stuff anyone else…..”
This confirms the trade unions are running the country. They are even donating to The Greens in return for that party voting against legislation in the Senate that is damaging to work practices.

I honestly don’t believe any political party should be getting any funding from anyone for their campaigning, except from their own pocket. The little questionnaires we get in our mailboxes asking to comment on policies simply get tossed in the bin, either at home or when they get to the party office, not to mention the waste of postage costs. TV advertising can certainly do with some revamping as it is all just tit for tat smear campaigning. I’m so sick of politics and politicians ripping off tax payers to line their own pockets and do nothing for the people supporting them. Whilst they give themselves pay rises they slash the funding for welfare and needy people. Banning political donations altogether might just give the parties the power to do what the voters want, not what the business world, finance sectors and developers are pushing.

One of the good side affects to the removing stamp duty and raising rates policy is that the ACT government will not rely on developers paying for new land to gain new income. It won’t stop the developers from doing their best to win favor, but releasing new land at a rate that maximises the developers profits and stamp duty will no longer be an issue.

While this is an issue in the ACT, its a far greater issue at national level. Politics is now run by those who donate the most, and stuff anyone else. The current government have been far too easy to read with regards to their policies, they try to hide the facts, but are not very good at it.

Garfield said :

rommeldog56 said :

Garfield said :

I had a look online and couldn’t find anything about the proposed motion. Does it seek to:
a) cap donations at $1,000; or
b) reduce the tax deductibility of donations from $1,500 to $1,000; or
c) reduce federal disclosure thresholds from $13,000 to $1,000.

Its about donations to ACT policical parties – ACT Legislative Assembly.

Not the Feds.

Try this previous RiotAct article for the detail :

http://the-riotact.com/political-funding-a-frightening-future-for-the-act/143310

Enjoy !

Thanks, I’m aware of how it works in the ACT at the moment. The opening post referenced a motion to be put forward at the upcoming Labor Federal Council and said that ACT Labor’s approach was in conflict with it. I couldn’t find anything online about the motion to be put forward and want to know what its actually proposing.

Yep – i remember some “chatter” and comments that other States (especially NSW) were tightening up on the cap on political donations and disclosure of those. Seems the Feds are doing the same ? Not, it appears the ACT Government though !

If would be nice, if along with disclosure of these uncapped donations to ACT political parties, the ACT Gov’t (incl the Greens) would publish how many meetings/contacts they had with each doner – especially developers and lobby groups.

In any eve

rommeldog56 said :

Garfield said :

I had a look online and couldn’t find anything about the proposed motion. Does it seek to:
a) cap donations at $1,000; or
b) reduce the tax deductibility of donations from $1,500 to $1,000; or
c) reduce federal disclosure thresholds from $13,000 to $1,000.

Its about donations to ACT policical parties – ACT Legislative Assembly.

Not the Feds.

Try this previous RiotAct article for the detail :

http://the-riotact.com/political-funding-a-frightening-future-for-the-act/143310

Enjoy !

Thanks, I’m aware of how it works in the ACT at the moment. The opening post referenced a motion to be put forward at the upcoming Labor Federal Council and said that ACT Labor’s approach was in conflict with it. I couldn’t find anything online about the motion to be put forward and want to know what its actually proposing.

rommeldog56 said :

vintage123 said :

I think it would be easier to stop the earth rotating than force cultural change upon both the government and the developers. Even once its all aired and you go into the detail and potentially link the major donators to political parties as the exact companies whom are also the major government contract holders, nothing untoward can ever be proven. It would be very difficult to prove that it was infact the donation that brought about the success of winning the contract.

In life you cant fight all of the battles and i reckon this one is just way too hard. Time to park it in the too hard basket, or as the saying goes if you cant beat them, join them, and look for opportunity to gain something from the system. A wise man once told me, “do the things you have to do, so that you can afford to do the things you want to do”.

Thats the way, yeah, just let the ACT Gov’t & Lib’s roll over everyone. Let them do what they want because its all too hard.

Lets not worry about the increase in $2 to $8 (I think ?) per vote that ACT Labor & Lib’s voted them selves to get when they passed that bill, primarilarly so that they have the funds to campaing in all 5 electorates. Even Rattenburry expressed concern about that – but still voted for it !

And on the uncapping of donations themselves – that will surely play into the hands of the ACT Labor/Greens Govt and probably to some extent, the ACT Liberals. Yes – they have to be declared. But so waht, the current ACT Gov’t has already figured out that it is unlikely that they will ever lose power here (unless the Greens withdraw support of course !) and that ACT voters/ratepayers dont really seem to care much about such things.

What hope do independents really have of breaking what i see as the stranglehold on power in the ACT that ACT Labor/Greens and potentially, the ACT Liberals, have.

That means more of the same level of incompetent decision making and hopeless fiscal priority setting that has beset ACT Governments in the past – and especially the current one.

So yeah, lets not worry about this one…….

Arthur Sinodinos, as elder statesman and dual Greek national, was giving some marvellously personally contradictory advice on this very subject on SBS the other night.

If you are going to pay governments on results, I think we need to formalise the arrangement and require the parties to issue receipts for services rendered, pay GST and income tax.

One way to balance the books.

Garfield said :

I had a look online and couldn’t find anything about the proposed motion. Does it seek to:
a) cap donations at $1,000; or
b) reduce the tax deductibility of donations from $1,500 to $1,000; or
c) reduce federal disclosure thresholds from $13,000 to $1,000.

Its about donations to ACT policical parties – ACT Legislative Assembly. Not the Feds.

Try this previous RiotAct article for the detail :

http://the-riotact.com/political-funding-a-frightening-future-for-the-act/143310

Enjoy !