Donations, of money or in the form of gifts, have the potential to bring down administrations and ruin careers.
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The Sunday Canberra Times' investigation into donations by developers to the ACT Labor and Liberal parties revives the debate about political donations in the ACT.
Just shy of five years ago, former NSW premier Nathan Rees cut off a steady supply of campaign funds by making it illegal for developers to donate to the state's political parties.
His reasoning was he felt residents were "entitled to a planning governance system free of innuendo and corruption".
Yet, in the ACT the system is alive, well and flourishing - with the government receiving almost $225,000 over the past five years.
Labor acting branch secretary Matt Byrne believes the ACT's "strong donation reporting laws and strong independent planning regulations" make it impervious to the issues which have dogged NSW as part of the Independent Commission Against Corruption investigations.
While the ACT has a rolling donations register, updated regularly alongside donations caps and a lobbyists' register, which will be introduced in January, our laws still do not go far enough.
In NSW, developers are required to disclose, on every application, who they have donated to previously - even if it was under a different name or as a separate entity.
The High Court is still investigating the constitutional soundness of the NSW developer donation ban. There is no doubt governments around Australia will be watching the outcome of that court battle closely.
Just because the ACT has not seen the same sorts of scandals as its neighbour does not make it immune to questionable deals, as has been exposed elsewhere.
ACT residents deserve to know when multimillion-dollar developer firms are making cash or gift donations to political parties in a timely and transparent manner.
Immediately identifying and acknowledging the receipt of donations, in a prominent position on their websites, would be a step towards gaining the public's trust and confidence on the issue.
While the Greens have vowed to take up the baton for developer donation reform, and transparency is a good first step, the ACT government needs to consider going even further and consider banning donations from developers to political parties entirely.
Businesses do not donate to political parties out of a sense of corporate generosity - they do it to buy access and influence.
The ACT government needs to ask itself some hard questions about whether it is appropriate for it to be accepting money from those whose developments are subject to government approval.
