Dastyari revelations could finally lead to donation reforms

By CHRISTIANE BARRO

The Sam Dastyari scandal could potentially translate into some level of reform around donations to political parties, experts say.

Political scientist and senior lecturer in politics at Monash University Dr Nick Economou said the Turnbull Government was likely to agree to some level of "tweaking" around Australia’s political donations system.

Talks of reform re-emerged after NSW Labor Senator Sam Dastyari took $1670 from a Chinese business company to pay a travel debt. He resigned as Labor's  consumer affairs spokesman last Wednesday. 

Dr Economou said the Government would potentially go about reforms in either one of two ways.

“They’ll find ways around it so that there can still be a flow of money from individual donors or even maybe corporate donors to the political parties,” he said.

The Greens are pushing a donations reforms Bill  to prevent tobacco, alcohol, gambling, mining industries and property developers from donating to any political party or candidate.

The Greens found more than $37 million had been donated by the resources sector in the past five years. The gaming and hotels industry had donated more than $5 million and the property industry had donated more than $10 million to political parties.

Dr Economou said the Government would alternatively introduce a system that would incorporate greater public funding from taxpayers.

“Given the cost of elections, that could be quite expensive,” he said.

The AEC reimburses political parties and candidates for election expenses, based on the number of primary votes they received in the election (as long as they achieve at least 4 per cent of the vote).

This aims to reduce reliance on large donations during political campaigns. But parties are only reimbursed 20 days after an election.

Dr Economou said although Senator Dastyari did not direct the money into the Labor Party, the “outburst of concern” around election funding was about the effects of overseas donations to Australian political parties.

“This is one of a long line of controversies that have come up involving the relationship between Chinese business interests and people in political parties,” he said.

The ABC reported Australian political parties received more than $5.5 million from Chinese organisations between 2013 and 2015.

Chinese businesses are the greatest source of foreign donations, the ABC found in an investigation into public declarations and company information.

Although Senator Dastyari said the donation did not influence his political stance on Chinese matters, the scandal intensified after he reportedly made comments about Australian foreign policy.

"The South China Sea is China's own affair. On this issue, Australia should remain neutral and respect China's decision," Mr Dastyari said on June 17 in the lead up to the federal election, according to Chinese media reports. He was standing beside the donor when he spoke, the Australian Financial Review reported.

It was a statement at odds with the ALP's stance on the issue. 

Dr Economou said Mr Dastyari “had no authority to make” such remarks but “he may well have just been saying things to be polite to his hosts”.

“That of course has opened him up to the allegation of ‘cash for comment’,” he said.