Electoral (Funding, Expenditure and Disclosure) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 14 October 2021.)

The Hon. C. BONAROS (17:03): I am happy not to refer to my notes, mainly because I cannot find them, and provide members with a brief outline of our position on this bill. I think this bill for us is probably a little different from the last bill that I just spoke on when it comes to elections, and that is because this is the very first time we are seeing this proposal and there are significant changes in here that we are being asked to consider, again, at the eleventh hour.

It comes at a time when, despite there being some provisions in here that we think are beneficial, in the lead-up to the election, when we have all started complying with various pieces of legislation and knowing the rules around them, we are changing those parameters entirely, particularly when it comes to, as the title suggests, funding, expenditure and disclosure. I have some concerns with that at this late stage and indicate that, at this stage, whilst we acknowledge that the government has, in effect, tried to address the commission's concerns, or issues that the commission may have made recommendations on, I am extremely concerned about the time that we have left to consider these particular changes.

I am concerned about the time we have to consider all of these changes, but I think it is fair to say we have had some time to digest the other changes. We certainly have not had as much time to digest these changes and the impacts—the actual impacts—that they will have on political parties who know the current set of rules and know that those current set of rules are about to change on them if this bill proceeds.

Our position at this stage is not a final one, in terms of where we will land on this bill, but we will be keen to see what happens throughout the course of the committee stage. One of the things that I would like to point out, and which was really disappointing from SA-Best's perspective, is that, whilst we have tried to actually make it a streamlined and simpler process for minor parties when it comes to disclosure at an election, we have provided those same minor parties with absolutely zero guidance as to what their funding arrangements will look like.

So we know what the major parties will be up for, in terms of funding and disclosure requirements, but as far as the minor parties are concerned the proposal is that those matters will be outlined in regulations. Of course, we have not seen those regulations. In fact, at this stage, we do not even know what is contained in those regulations and that, for us, is critical at this stage and certainly critical before we proceed with this bill any further.

I am not inclined to proceed with this bill any further unless and until the government is actually going to provide us with some idea—a draft set of regulations or some idea—of what those proposals will look like. I hope that is a signal to the government that we are waiting to see what those regulations look like, but ideally between now and when they propose to deal with this bill later this week we have a better indication of what we have today because they will significantly impact minor parties, not major parties. They will significantly impact major parties in other ways, but they will significantly impact us in ways that we simply have no idea about at this stage. That is an unrealistic ask of any minor party in this parliament, and so it is for those reasons that we reserve our position in relation to this bill.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. D.G.E. Hood.