The Queensland government’s “real-time” reporting of political donations will be extended to include the state’s local government elections.
The Palaszczuk government, the first to introduce the online disclosures at the state level, hailed the move as a transparency measure to help voters “know who they’re voting for” before council elections.
The reforms, passed by state parliament on Wednesday night, mean donations over $500 to those running in the 2020 council elections will be revealed online no more than seven days after they are made.
Council candidates previously had until 15 weeks after polling day to lodge donation records with the Electoral Commission of Queensland.
The move follows a Crime and Corruption Commission inquiry last month that heard the ultimate sources of donations to some candidates running as independents – from a major political party or property developers – were not made clear when they came via a trust or a fundraising body.
The Queensland electoral commissioner, Walter van der Merwe, conceded at the inquiry that the time lag in disclosures did not enable voters to know who had funded a candidate before they cast their vote.
The inquiry was called after van der Merwe reported an unusually large number of complaints about the 2016 council elections.
Van der Merwe said “real-time” disclosures were “definitely the way we should go with local government” and would “make my life and my staff’s life a lot easier in terms of monitoring and managing and checking up on funding and disclosure”.
The deputy premier, Jackie Trad, said the changes to the Local Government Electoral Act would ensure “full disclosure of campaign donations during local government elections so Queenslanders know who they’re voting for when they go to the polls”.
The local government minister, Mark Furner, said: “We have mandated real-time disclosure of political donations, delivering some of the most open and transparent laws in the country.”
Furner said the CCC inquiry “highlighted issues of transparency and accountability and, should that investigation lead to further recommendations for legislative reform, the government will consider them”.
Van der Merwe told the inquiry that the state online disclosure system was “100% transparent”.
“Anybody can log on to our system,” he said. “They can identify a candidate. They will see what monies they have received, where they have spent it.
“It’s of great interest to the academics, the media, political parties, opponents.”
Cameron Murray, an academic who researches corruption and the property industry, told the inquiry it was “not really the donations” that helped special interests gain political influence but networking and lobbying.
This included developers engaging “the professional lobbyists, hiring former politicians to sit on your board as in-house lobbyists”.
“My research suggests that donations are more like a ticket to entry for newcomers to this relationship network,” he said.
Graeme Orr, an academic expert in electoral law, told the inquiry that running as an independent in local government had a “cachet” amid a recent rise in “cynicism” among voters for whom political parties were “on the nose”.