"Electoral" and "disclosure" - two words that might make the ordinary person/voter think they could follow the money trail of Australian politics.
But that person would be wrong.
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Donations debate rolls on
Former PM Tony Abbott has joined in the call to ban foreign and other donations to political parties.
Although the 2016 federal election disclosure returns were published on Monday by the Australian Electoral Commission they do nothing to increase anyone's understanding of how politics in Australia works or is funded.
There are some interesting little titbits in there but only if you know where to look and only if you are interested in the amuse-bouche rather than the main course.
![Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Parliament he would fight against "post truth politics" in 2017.](/web/20161221190738im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/8/q/a/m/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtdxej.png/1482162157876.jpg)
All the real stuff about how much moolah Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull personally contributed to the re-election of his own government, which industries and unions had skin in the game and just how much money is wafting around politics is unavailable until February.
That's at least seven months since the election was held and, in some cases, years after some of the donations were made.
The political disclosure laws in Australia are a joke.
They are opaque, tricky and designed to obscure the link between money and political outcomes.
![Bill Shorten ranked higher than Malcolm Turnbull in only one category in the study: compassion.](/web/20161221190738im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/c/l/7/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtdxej.png/1482214065167.jpg)
Punters know it.
Most politicians know it.
![Independent senator Nick Xenophon is one of the few politicians prepared to speak in favour of reforming the political ...](/web/20161221190738im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/7/e/l/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtdxej.png/1482162158029.jpg)
But apart from Nick Xenophon and the Greens, none of them want to talk about it, much less do anything about it.
Why? For the simple reason that they benefit from the system.
Which is odd given all the hand-wringing the major political parties have been indulging in as they grapple with the implications of Brexit and Donald Trump.
Like the chubby friend who promises to lose weight in the new year but doesn't want to start eating vegetables, the Coalition and Labor are fiddling about on the edges of reform without wanting to deal with any of the main issues that drive people's discontent with capital P politics.
In just the past month, Attorney-General George Brandis appointed four ex-MPs to $200,000-a-year legal positions, former communications minister Stephen Conroy became the head of a new gambling industry lobby group and the former Liberal premier of Western Australia was made Australia's new ambassador to Japan.
On Monday morning it was reported that former minister Jamie Briggs, who resigned from the Turnbull ministry last year after a complaint was made about his behaviour towards a female public servant in a bar, had quietly been given a $56,150-a-year seat on a government enterprise board.
I say "quietly" because the appointment was posted on a departmental website late last Friday afternoon and no press release was issued.
It's enough to make a person think someone in the government thought such an appointment was not such a good look.
Just a thought guys - if you are not willing to publicise such an appointment then your hesitation might be reason enough not to make the appointment in the first place.
In their end of year speeches to Parliament both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten name-checked the massive realignments in international politics that have taken place this year and offered some cursory thoughts about facing those challenges.
Neither leader thought to tackle the blindingly obvious - restoring faith in democracy.
Instead, they waved through a massive security upgrade to Parliament House that will further restrict people's access to their representatives.
For good measure, neither the Coalition nor Labor wants to tells us how many millions of dollars the upgrade will cost.
Turnbull has already said company tax cuts will be his priority next year.
If there's one institution people are less likely to trust than politics it's big business.
It doesn't take a genius to work out that a prime minister wanting to devote his time to giving tax breaks to the big end of town might not be the best way to restore faith or inspire confidence in politics.
If either leader was serious about acting on people's concerns then a not especially difficult way to start would be cleaning up their own backyards.
Let's have real-time disclosure of how MPs spend their entitlements, a publicly accessible database of political donations that is easy to use and understand, an examination of foreign donations and a crackdown on this insulting practice of appointing ex-MPs to plum gigs and allowing them to argue on behalf of people whose main interest in life is self-interest.
Politics - it just doesn't have to be this hard.
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