Independent MPs have launched a fresh push to crack down on political donations in an attempt to increase transparency.
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West Australian MP Kate Chaney introduced laws to parliament that would require donations over $1000 be disclosed in real time, while donations would be banned from current or future Commonwealth contractors, such as the big four consultancy firms.
Ms Chaney said the reforms would help to level the electoral playing field.
"The fairness and transparency of our elections underpins every other issue addressed in this house," she told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
The changes would lower the threshold for donation disclosure from $16,000 to $1000, while truth in political advertising would be legislated.
Political donations would also be banned for companies inflicting social harm.
"We need to reduce financial influence so we trust governments to make decisions in the best interests of the country," Ms Chaney said.
"We can't trust our politicians to make decisions about gambling harm if they're secretly beholden to gambling providers. We can't ask them to make decisions about climate if they're financed by fossil fuel companies."
Organisations such as unions and publicly listed companies would need to gain approval from members or shareholders before donations would be able to be made.
However, spending caps would not be part of the proposed laws.
Ms Chaney said while political spending often favoured larger parties and incumbents, she said it was difficult to strike the right balance.
"It's pretty hard to find a model that works on caps because while we don't want to see that money in politics people also want to to know they have a choice, so getting that balance right is going to be very challenging," she said.
The proposal comes after parliament's powerful joint standing committee on electoral matters released its interim report on the 2022 election.
That report also called for the donation threshold to be lowered to $1000 and real-time disclosure.
The government has previously flagged interest in making the two changes.
Australian Associated Press
