Thursday, 4 August 2022

Ministers statements: political donations

Mr PEARSON (Essendon—Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Regulatory Reform, Minister for Government Services, Minister for Housing) (14:34): It is my pleasure to rise again to talk about Victoria’s strict, transparent and nation-leading donation laws. We made these reforms in 2018 because we believe that voters have a right to know who makes and receives political donations and they should also know that political donations cannot unfairly or improperly influence the political process. Now, let me tell you what has changed through these reforms. Foreign donations were banned; anonymous donations over $1080—banned. We introduced a cap of $4320 for each four-year election period from the same source. People with deep pockets should not wield a greater influence.

We introduced new disclosure obligations so each donation equal to or above $1080 must be disclosed by both the donor and the recipient within 21 days of it being made or received, and we introduced new penalties for failure to comply with the disclosure and reporting scheme. Planning or acting out a scheme to get around prohibited donation laws has a consequence of up to 10 years prison time. This shows how seriously we take the integrity of our political donations scheme, and we know the Victorian community do too.

It is no surprise that the Leader of the Opposition is refusing to come clean on his secret plan to rort our donation laws when he and his party strongly opposed our reforms in 2018. At the time the opposition said that there was no need to ensure that parties could seek financial support from other sources. What other sources are they referring to? These laws were created to prevent MPs being bought and sold and to ensure politicians cannot be compromised by donors. The question remains: who owns the Leader of the Opposition? And are you glad you backed this bloke? Are you glad you rolled him and replaced him with this bloke?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! What a pleasant way to end question time!

Ms Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, I would like you to please follow up a few adjournments that are outstanding: adjournment 6388 to the Minister for Housing in relation to housing affordability and accessibility in the Yarra Ranges and adjournment 6414 to the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events in relation to including Commonwealth Games activities in the Yarra Ranges. If you could follow those two overdue items up, that would be greatly appreciated for my community.

Mr McCurdy: On a point of order, Speaker, could I get a response to questions on notice 6687 and 6669, adjournments 6448 and 6394 and constituency question 6398, please.

Mr D O’Brien: Also on a point of order, Speaker, I have unanswered questions 6561, 6338 and 6278 that I believe are all overdue.

The SPEAKER: I will make sure those matters are addressed.