I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall during those meetings back in 2015 when the poor old ASIO chief, Duncan Lewis, tried to explain to Australia's political leaders why they should not accept vast donations from individuals linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
As was revealed on Monday night in a joint Fairfax and Four Corners investigation, Lewis briefed leaders of both major parties and the Nationals about his concerns in 2015.
![Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Tuesday legislation would be prepared to ban foreign political donations.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170607042709im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/g/t/w/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwleuv.png/1496749274738.jpg)
I can imagine how it went.
"Mate, the problem is, taking millions of dollars from the connections of a rival emerging superpower as it pursues illegal expansionist action in our region is not such a good look."
The response, I like to think, would have been offered in a tone conveying shock and not a little distress at the spook's implication of impropriety.
"Mate! I am shocked at the suggestion they wanted anything in return from us for their payments totalling $6.7 million over the past decade."
However it went, Lewis's warnings went unheeded. After the meetings the Coalition stuck its hand out for another $897,000. Labor took a further $200,000.
This is, of course, a preposterous situation, another reminder - as if we needed one - of why we need immediate massive reform of regulations governing federal political donations.
There is no other advanced economy where a foreign power could legally grease the palms of domestic politicians. But the possibility of foreign interference aside, the donations laws are absurd.
Each year the same handful of industries and interest groups - developers, gambling, unions, resources, tobacco and pharmaceuticals chief among them - pour buckets of money over our politicians while they continue to insist it has no affect on how they run their diaries or departments.
Last year, for example, the largest pharmaceutical donor to Labor was the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, which donated $139,990 to the party, $82,000 of which was stumped up two days before Labor announced it would oppose a Coalition plan to increase drug co-payments, the ABC revealed in an analysis of donations.Â
Asked if this was a coincidence, Bill Shorten huffed and puffed. "I think that's way out of line. I completely reject the proposition you're putting. I reject it."
Well, fine, but that would be an easier line to swallow if the party hadn't just palmed $140 grand. (The Guild shelled out to the Liberal Party too, but only to the tune of $70,000.)
And who can forget Sam Dastyari's performance last year when he was pinged for passing on a travel bill of $1600 to a Chinese businessman, with, yes, links to the Chinese government, rather than sticking his hand in his own pocket.
Compounding the issue, at around the same time he had given an interview to Chinese media in which he walked back Labor's stance against China's behaviour in the South China Sea.
Dasher's press conference after this was a treat, a masterpiece of the genre, a half-hour blizzard of ambiguous contrition. He trotted out all the classics ‒ "If I have misspoken... I have made a mistake... I completely reject the assertion... " ‒ but could never explain why a Chinese firm with links to the Chinese government was happy to look after his bills, or why it would even cross his mind to ask it to in the first place.
This week's investigation presented even more detail of this kind, and there is yet more to come next week.
During his campaign, one of Donald Trump's most effective claims was that he could not be bought by special interests because he was so wealthy. This was absolute nonsense, he is already taking donations for the 2020 campaign, but his point was well made. People are fleeing major party politics the world over.
In Australia, the Labor and Liberal parties combined are now estimated to have less than 100,000 members. By comparison, there are almost a quarter of a million people waiting for Melbourne Cricket Ground membership.
If major party politicians want to avoid oblivion they will embrace donation reform. They will abolish overseas donations entirely, severely restrict corporate and special interest contributions, cut the maximum donation level for individuals and ramp up transparency.
That way they might find their focus naturally returns to the interests of voters rather than donors. They will be freed of the necessity to regularly stand before cameras and talk rubbish to an increasingly angry electorate.
They might even avoid the embarrassment of inadvertently committing treason.
11 comments
New User? Sign up