Big political donors who want to remain anonymous will be breathing easier after the Senate derailed yesterday the first instalment of the Federal Government's electoral reform legislation.
The Coalition parties and Family First senator Steve Fielding combined to vote down legislation to lower the threshold for the disclosure of political donations and political expenditure to $1000 from the $10,900 index-linked threshold introduced by the former Howard government.
The defeated Bill also included a ban on foreign donations, a ban on anonymous donations over $50, and a requirement that separate branches of the same party be treated as separate donations for disclosure purposes, a measure that would close a loophole allowing multiple donations below the threshold to be kept secret.
Also voted down were provisions that would have tied taxpayer funding for political parties and candidates to verified electoral expenditure, so that candidates would not be able to profit from public funding.
Special Minister of State John Faulkner said the measures contained in the legislation were vital to ''clean up Australia's political donations system''.
''The Government is absolutely committed to ending the secrecy around donations,'' he said.
''The Liberals have never explained why they believe these reform measures are not a positive step towards a more open and accountable electoral system.''
Shadow special minister of state Michael Ronaldson said that Labor had ''only itself to blame'' for the defeat of the Bill because it had pushed its partisan preferences rather than ''comprehensive reform'' based on ''sensible discussions between the parties''.
''Over the last year Labor have brought forward two Bills that have attempted to 'cherry-pick' various aspects all of which have worked to reinforce Labor's strong political donation position,'' Senator Ronaldson said.
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, said the Coalition and Senator Fielding had voted ''to keep a system of Howard-era cover-ups and political murk in place''.
''They voted against fair democratic reform aimed at reducing the influence of wealthy donors. It corrupts politics. Senator Fielding has relegated the idea of putting the interests of families first,'' Senator Brown said.
Senator Faulkner said the Government would reintroduce the legislation into the House of Representatives at the earliest possible opportunity.