Under the new funding laws, organisations such as community groups and trade unions are banned from donating to political parties, while severe and anti-democratic restrictions are imposed on their right to run political campaigns.
The ability of ordinary working people to pursue our political objectives - whether at election times or on the streets - is dependent on our right to organise collectively. By placing harsh restrictions on political campaigning and donations by trade unions and community groups, the bill only serves to silence the 99%.
For this reason, the NSW Socialist Alliance calls for the immediate repeal of the electoral funding reform bill. In its place, we propose real measures that can begin to challenge the corporate elite's influence over the political process.
These include:
• Abolition of restrictive and onerous electoral laws, including party registration and the nomination deposit for both the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. Even the relatively low nomination deposit of $250 for the LA excludes a great many people;
• Introduction of publicly funded election campaigns for all candidates, to move away from the current system based on commercial advertising. All candidates would be ensured an equal amount of publicly funded authorised information on TV and radio, in letterboxes and newspapers etc;
Such electoral funding reforms should also be accompanied with a more deep-ranging restructuring of the overall electoral system, currently stacked in favour of the two traditional, pro-corporate parties. This restructure would require steps such as a the introduction of genuinely proportional representation for elections to public office, the ability of voters to recall representatives, and placing politicians on an average workers’ wage.
NSW Socialist Alliance statement, February 18
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