Policy

Provide more trustworthy and transparent governance to help stop corruption.

Policy Methods (Federal & State)

To help achieve this Sustainable Australia Party will:

• Establish an independent Federal Commission to monitor and expose corruption and misconduct by federal politicians and officials, and equivalent bodies in all states and territories.

• Adopt more transparent reporting of political lobbying and all financial contributions, including the requirement for politicians to declare any time they spend with registered lobbyists.
• Ban ex-politicians and senior staff in government departments from employment with registered lobbying organisations and other relevant vested interests (as determined by an independent federal corruption commission enquiry or similar process) for at least 3 years from the date of leaving office.(1)
• Scrap all political pensions, including a phase-out of all current pensions within 10 years so that, like ordinary citizens, politicians plan for their own retirement.
• Ban all foreign political donations.
• Ban all property developer donations and contributions to political parties and independent candidates.

"While Australians were distracted last week by Melbourne’s lockdown ending and the final days of the Queensland and United States elections, both major parties joined forces in federal parliament to weaken political donations laws. This will make it easier for federal politicians to accept secret donations from property developers." The Conversation

• Require more timely disclosure of political donations (as determined by an independent federal corruption commission enquiry or similar process).
• Cap political donations and contributions at $10,000 (in total) per person / entity per year.
• Remove the four per cent primary vote barrier for public funding of minor political parties and independent candidates (campaign refunds), so that all candidates attract the same public funding amount per vote.
• Increase the public funding amount per vote (as determined by an independent federal corruption commission enquiry or similar process) so that candidates have less reliance on political donations.
• Cap public sector wages/salaries at the Prime Minister’s salary ($527,852 in 2017), including all government-owned entities, statutory authorities, departments and political staffers.
• Support a strong public service and public sector, and an end to ideologically-driven outsourcing and asset sales (also see Privatisation & Public Assets).
• Allow citizens to directly petition Federal Parliament via electronic/online method, asking for action to be taken on an issue.
• Enable citizen-initiated referenda or plebiscites upon the parliament receiving a petition containing the signatures of one per cent or more of the total of all electors.

Policy Methods (ACT-only)

To help achieve this Australia should:

• Increase Community Council funding in order to provide stronger and more diverse local community representation to members of the Legislative Assembly on issues such as planning, environment and education.
• Seek better Federal Parliament representation in the Senate, by increasing the number of Senate seats from two to four.(2)
• Restore the National Capital Authority with a genuinely independent mandate, including a strengthened National Capital Plan so as to protect Canberra’s unique setting and environment.
• Restore the ACT Planning and Land Authority with a genuinely independent mandate.

Footnotes:

1. Many government ministers and senior staff find lucrative careers in the private sector in industries they formerly regulated. This makes it too easy to repay favours given. Also see Game of Mates.
2. By comparison, Tasmania with around 500,000 people has 12 seats in the Senate.

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