Former prime minister Tony Abbott has outlined a sweeping plan for reform of Australia's political donations system that would ban payments from unions, companies and overseas donors.
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In comments that will ratchet up pressure on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to act on reform of Australia's donations laws - rather than punt the problem off to a parliamentary committee - Mr Abbott spoke exclusively to Fairfax Media about the need for a major re-think of the current system.
While opposition leader in May 2013, Mr Abbott backed out on a donation reform deal struck with then-prime minister Julia Gillard after an internal party and public backlash.
That deal would have handed political parties and elected MPs more public funding but also, crucially, reduced the disclosure thresholds for anonymous donations from $12,000 to $5000.
But in the wake of the Dastyari scandal, Mr Abbott said:"I think it is time to look at donations reform again.
"We need to look long and hard at restricting donations to real people on the electoral roll.To that end, there should be no union donations, company donations or foreign donations, " he said.
"Obviously we don't want influence buying, we don't want subversion of our system. The best way to ensure the system is straight and clean is full transparency. The best way to have transparency is to have real-time disclosure, or near-to-real-time disclosure."
Mr Abbott encouraged people "to donate to the Liberals, or the party of their choice - that's a good thing - and if they want to do it substantially that's great, as long as there is that transparency".
"Plainly we do need to subject any changes to scrutiny to ensure there are no unintended consequences, but in the wake of the Dastyari affair, this does need to be looked at again."
Mr Abbott did not specify whether the Turnbull government should appoint an independent panel of experts to examine donations reform, as the NSW government did in 2014, or whether it should be left to a parliamentary committee.
The former prime minister's call came a day after Labor frontbencher Sam Dastyari stepped down as manager of opposition business in the Senate and shadow minister for consumer affairs after revelations he asked Chinese donors to pick up legal and travel bills and that he contradicted Labor's South China Sea policy.
They also come as Opposition Leader Bill Shorten stepped up pressure on Mr Turnbull to act on political donations reform, and as the Prime Minister said Mr Shorten's failure to sack Senator Dastyari represented a "failure of leadership" and a "lack of courage".
Mr Turnbull said that "ideally" donations should be limited to people on the electoral roll but only hinted that a parliamentary committee could look at the issue.
"So you would exclude not simply foreigners but you would exclude corporations and you'd exclude trade unions," he said.
"It is a very complex issue, however, and it is something that the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters should look at very carefully."
The committee, however, has not been formed, has not been asked to examine the issue and routinely has had its past reform recommendations ignored.
After the 2013 election, the committee undertook a routine review but devoted just 10 pages of the 192-page report to the issues of donations. It made not one recommendation to reform the system or improve transparency.
After the 2010 poll, the committee examined how the political donations system in Australia could be improved and made a sweeping series of recommendations - including lowering disclosure thresholds and banning foreign money.
Mr Shorten said the Prime Minister was "hardly one to throw rocks about political courage".
"I say to Malcolm Turnbull: be prepared. Next week you can either work with us or oppose us but, by hook or by crook, Labor is going to propose legislation which will ban foreign donations."
Labor's donations reform policies include reducing the disclosure threshold from $13,800 to $1000, banning anonymous donations over $50 and banning foreign donations.
The Greens and sections of the crossbench also back donations reforms, including lowering donations thresholds and stopping foreign donations.
On Thursday, Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger told Sky News he supported 100 per cent public funding for elections, a ban on foreign donations, and a $1000 donations cap.
Liberal MP Cory Bernardi this week backed calls for donations reform, while Trade Minister Steve Ciobo suggested the time may have come to change donation rules in the wake of the Dastyari scandal.
Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne, however, said it was "perfectly justifiable" for political parties to take foreign donations.
- with Tom McIlroy
