TASMANIA - a special case
Tasmania is the only state in Australia with no requirement for local government candidates to ever disclose donations or gifts, no limits on the amount donated or who can donate..
A recipe for corruption
We’ve been hearing a lot about Local Councils in the media recently and most of this has been for the wrong reasons. Inquiries have been conducted, Councils have been dismissed and currently the State Government is conducting a review of the Local Government Act.
One of the terms of reference of this review is: “Local Government elections – electoral rolls, funding and advertising” and one of the questions posed in the first round of submissions was “Should there be restrictions on the donations local government electoral candidates are permitted to receive? If so, what should the restrictions include?”
Approximately 81% of those that addressed this question submitted that there should be restrictions on the donations and there were a number of comments that it was not appropriate for candidates to receive donations from building developers as this could lead to a clear conflict of interest and that donations should be disclosed.
It should be noted that Tasmania is currently the only state in Australia that has no limits on how much a candidate for local government can accept in donations, no restrictions on who can make donations and no requirement whatsoever for any disclosure. This could be considered an invitation to corruption and, as such, should be addressed appropriately.
Despite this strong support for restrictions on candidate’s donations, including one from the Local Government Association, the Draft Bill does not address issues of candidate donations at all.
It takes only a few minutes to make a submission and they should be sent to should be sent HERE before 5.00 pm on the Friday 5 May 2017.
Background information is available here: Consultation feedback
- Candidates can legally spend as much as they want on self-promotion in the months prior to the election
- Their spending is only limited by regulation for the few weeks prior to the actual vote.
- They never, ever have to disclose to the public where any donations come from or how much they have received. Local government is big business
- Hobart City Council controls assets of over $1 billion and has an income of over $50 million from rates alone
- Councillors make decisions that have significant financial consequences for individuals and businesses. With no regulations the temptation may be irresistible for some candidates and those who might profit from their decisions
- There is a very fine line between "donations" and "bribes"
- Many state politicians start off in local government: any corruption at this level may be transferred on
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