Responding to the Government and Opposition blocking the Greens move to refer the electoral reform bills to a Senate inquiry Greens Senate leader and democracy spokesperson Senator Larissa Waters said:
“Today in the Senate the government and the opposition teamed up to block an inquiry into the electoral reform bills. This is bad for democracy.
“There are some straightforward transparency measures in this bill, like lowering the disclosure threshold to $1,000 and real-time disclosure, which we have long called for.
“The Greens are ready to pass transparency measures.
“However, we want an inquiry to ensure that the proposed funding reforms to get big money out of politics don’t entrench the two party system and make it harder for diversity and new entrants.
“It is the job of the Senate to scrutinise proposed legislation and that is what we have called for today.
“Any reform which limits donations to anyone who challenges Liberal and Labor, while protecting the establishment parties’ sources of income, will be seen for what it is – a complete stitch up, undermining our democracy, and the public’s expectation of fair play.
“Both the big parties continue to accept huge sums of money from dirty industries like coal and gas with a track record of trying to buy favourable policy outcomes.
“The Greens have been calling for reform for decades.
“The Greens are ready, with a bill, that provides real electoral reform, but we’re very suspicious that the two big parties will gang up to rig the system to benefit themselves and lock out smaller parties and new entrants.”