Friday 29th of March 2024

update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....

Happy New Year, from the Democratic Audit Team. 

Whistleblowing 

In a new paper for the Audit, Dr David Solomon,
Adjunct Professor of Politics at the University of Queensland, looks at the law
protecting whistleblowing, arguing that more protection is needed.  

http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060208_solomon_whistleblowers.pdf  

Canadian Elections  

Bill Cross, Director of the Democratic Audit of
Canada, analyses Canada's federal election. The Conservative Party victory (on
23 January 2006) followed the 'sponsorship scandal' which engulfed the Liberal
government. The first-past-the-post system continues to deliver controversial
results - the New Democrats won 18 per cent of the vote but only 10 per cent of
the seats, the Greens won almost 5 per cent of the vote but no seats, the
Liberals won no seats in Alberta despite winning 15 per cent of the vote and
the Conservatives were shut out of the major cities despite winning 25 per cent
of the vote in Toronto. The new minority Conservative government will be
dependent on votes from either the Bloc Québécois or the Liberals to prop it
up, so it could be as short-lived as the last Liberal government. 

http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060209_cross_canada_elects.pdf 

Nice work, if you can get it 

Anne Davies, Damien Murphy and Elisabeth Sexton
report in the SMH on the lack of codes for post-ministerial employment in
Commonwealth and NSW jurisdictions. They describe a number of recent cases
where Ministers have gone immediately into private sector jobs close to their
ministerial portfolios, despite warnings from corruption bodies about the
practice. Canada and the United Kingdom, and other Australian jurisdictions
such as Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT, have
recognised the problem and adopted such codes. In 2004 the Democratic Audit
(Report No 3) recommended that codes governing post-separation employment of
ministers be adopted in all Australian jurisdictions. 

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it/2006/01/27/1138319450090.html

Political donations revealed 

The Australian Electoral Commission’s latest
political donations disclosures have generated a lot of comment: http://fadar.aec.gov.au/ 

The single largest donation, $1,000,000 from
Lord Michael Ashcroft to the Liberals, was also the most controversial:
Ashcroft is a former treasurer, and current Deputy Chairman of the British
Conservative Party but also, controversially, holds dual nationality from Britain
and the tax haven of Belize, for which he was the permanent representative at
the UN. Concern was expressed in Britain about his role in politics there,
given his continuing close relationship with a foreign government. Despite
claims by the Liberals that Lord Ashcroft has a close affinity with Australia,
it seems that he has no particular association with it beyond that of keen
visitor. His contribution has naturally raised questions about the role of
foreign donations to political parties in Australia. 

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18012807%255E2702,00.html 

The Australian has also republished a Times article from
last November, where Lord Ashcroft argues the case supporting foreign donations
to British political parties, currently accessible at http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18021023%255E7583,00.html

Crikey.com has carried a more detailed analysis
of the disclosures, including a list of the largest ten donors to Labor and the
Liberals:  

10 Largest Donors to Liberals

Lord Michael Ashcroft KCMG - $1,000,000.00

Inghams Enterprises Pty Ltd - $200,000.00

Pratt Holdings Pty Ltd - $200,000.00

Village Roadshow Limited - $200,000.00

Croissy Pty Limited - $175,000.00

ANZ Banking Group Ltd - $100,000.00

Mistral International Pty Ltd - $100,000.00

Walker Corporation Pty Ltd - $100,000.00

Wesfarmers Ltd - $100,000.00

JP Morgan Administrative Services Pty Ltd -
$82,500.00

Total Receipts: $29,477,988.00 

10 Largest Donors to Labor

CFMEU Mining & Energy Division -
$470,000.00

Shop Distributive & Allied Employees'
Association - $300,000.00

CFMEU Construction & General Division,
National Office - $200,000.00

Village Roadshow Limited - $200,000.00

Westfield Capital Corporation Ltd - $175,000.00

Canberra Tradesmen's Union Club - $120,000.00

AMWU - $100,000.00

Inghams Enterprises Pty Ltd - $100,000.00

Pratt Holdings Pty Ltd - $100,000.00

Network Ten Pty Limited - $75,000.00 

Total receipts:$29,989,686.00 

In The Age, Joo-Cheong Tham, of
Melbourne University’s Law School and the co-author of the Democratic Audit of
Australia’s forthcoming report on Political Finance, criticises the role of
corporate funding of political parties. He argues that at both State and
Federal level, the parties are becoming dangerously reliant on corporate
funding, and calls for tighter regulations around disclosure.  

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/paying-a-price-for-patronage/2006/02/02/1138836366582.html 

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Elisabeth
Sexton argues that, in spite of the deluge of information from the AEC, the
disclosures are still opaque and important information can remain hidden. 

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/02/03/1138958911140.html
 

Reshuffle 

Last month’s cabinet reshuffle has seen Hon Sen
Eric Abetz replaced as Special Minister of State (covering electoral matters)
by Hon Gary Nairn MP.
 

High Court appeal allowed in important FOI case 

On 3 February 2006 three judges of the High
Court (Gummow, Kirby & Hayne JJ) granted special leave to appeal to the High
Court against the majority decision of the Full Federal Court in McKinnon v
Secretary, Department of Treasury
(2005) 220 ALR 587. 

The FOI appeal has been financed by News
Limited in conjunction with a number of other media organisations. The case concerns
the powers of the Administrative Appeal Tribunal to review decisions when a
minister has issued a conclusive certificate, claiming the release of documents
would be contrary to the public interest. The transcript of the hearing can be
found at

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/HCATrans/2006/13.html.  

Blair defeated over religious hatred laws 

The British Government was defeated in its
attempt to introduce laws on religious hatred. The laws were designed to
tighten a loophole that protects against discrimination and abuse against
racial minorities, and covers Sikhs and Jews, but not Muslims. However, there
were concerns that the laws would make legitimate criticism of faith, including
much satire, illegal. A high profile campaign, which included high profile
comedians such as Rowan Atkinson was waged against it. Ultimately though,
despite a significant backbench revolt, the bill was defeated due to a
miscalculation by the Labour Party Whips Office, who had thought it unnecessary
to bring back a by-election campaign team for the vote. Ironically, the
Government was defeated on one of the votes by just one, after the Prime
Minister missed it.
 

The first defeat, by 288 votes to
278, was aimed at ensuring the new laws would not affect the current racial
hatred laws. The second vote, which the government lost by 283 votes to 282,
said the law should only criminalise "threatening" behaviour, not
things which were just "abusive and insulting". It also means people
can only be prosecuted if they intend to stir up hatred - not if they are
merely "reckless".
 

New look Audit website  

We have revamped the Democratic Audit website
to make it more user-friendly. In particular, the site now incorporates a
database that allows the reader to retrieve - by author, topic or keyword - our
greatest resource: all papers we have published since we began in 2002. Have a
look and let us know what you think of it. 

http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/
 

Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 

[email protected]
Tel:  +61 2 6125 0696
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051

Update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....

We were saddened to hear of the recent death of Glenn
Rhodes. Through his work at the AEC and the Queensland Electoral Commission,
and through his teaching at Griffith University, he made a very significant
contribution to electoral administration and its study in Australia. He was
also very supportive of the Democratic Audit over the years. Our condolences to
his family and friends. 

South Australian election

In this paper for the Audit,
Geoff Anderson and Haydon Manning of Flinders University review the election
and analyse the Rann government's commitment to abolishing the upper house and
inclusion of non-Labor members in Cabinet. They also examine South Australia's
unique electoral redistribution formula. 

http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060411_and_mann_elec_sa.pdf

Italian ex-pats vote

Ousted Italian Prime Minister,
Silvio Berlusconi, is contesting the result of the Italian election in part
because so many Australian-based voters tried to vote preferentially, spoiling
their ballots. 

The general election held on 9–10
April 2006 has produced a change of government with Romani Prodi’s centre-left
coalition evidently triumphing in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. 

Prodi’s coalition was the
plurality winner for the Chamber of Deputies by the smallest of margins—some 25
000 votes out of an electorate of 47 million. This translates, however, into 55
per cent of the seats in the lower house thanks to the bonus arrangement
whereby a plurality winner is allocated no less than 340 seats. 

The controversy that has prompted
the Berlusconi challenge relates to the result in the Senate, where Prodi’s
coalition has won a narrow, two-seat majority by winning four of the six newly
created seats for expatriate voters. Melbourne's Nino Randazzo, long-time
Editor of Il Globo, was one of the newly-elected Senators who decided
the outcome. 

The global campaign manager for
Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia has pointed to the 10 698 spoiled ballot papers
cast in Australia, 27 per cent of the total, as a possible ground for a
recount. Some voters spoiled their ballots by numbering the candidates as they would in an
Australian election, rather than putting a cross against a single, preferred
candidate.
 

New Italian electoral law
provides 3.5 million expatriate Italians with their own representatives—12
seats in the Chamber of Deputies and six seats in the Senate. Expatriate
Italians have four geographical constituencies, Europe outside Italy, South
America, North and Central America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Italo-Australians
dominate the latter electorate, with 120 000 out of the 200 000 voters. 

Apart from Senator Randazzo,
Melbourne-based Marco Fedi was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. Both are
committed to pursuing issues relating to pensions and reacquisition of Italian
citizenship. Their electorate stretches from the west coast of Africa to the
Pacific Islands and north to Mongolia. 

Observers will have been watching
the innovations in expatriate representation carefully, not least in Australia
where expatriates can only enrol on the overseas voters' register if they
intend to return to Australia within six years. In 2004 the Audit published a
paper by Andrew Leigh, arguing for a Senator for Expat Australians.
 

http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/200407_leigh_expat_rep.pdf
 

Electoral Commission shifts
position

In an article for The Age,
Audit contributor Brian Costar and Peter Browne, both of Swinburne Institute
for Social Research, consider the role of the Australian Electoral Commission
in the current passage of the Electoral and Referendum Amendment Act. They
criticise the Commission’s apparent shift in position over the current
Electoral Amendment Bill, that will see early closure of the electoral roll.
Previously the Commission had provided evidence that early closure of the roll
would not improve its accuracy, because less time would be available for voters
to got on the roll or correct their enrolment details. Now the new Commissioner
says it will make their life easier.
 

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/finding-fault-where-there-was-none-before/2006/04/03/1143916461858.html
 

Norm Kelly, former Audit manager,
and former Democrat member of the WA Parliament, reviewed the draft Bill and
its implication for On-Line Opinion:
 

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4323
  

Clerk of the Senate defends
estimates process

Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans,
addressed the National Press Club on 11 April 2006 on ‘Senate estimates and the
Government Majority in the Senate’. In it, he warned against any neutering of
the Senate estimates process, which plays a central part in the government's
accountability to parliament.
 

http://www.aph.gov.au/SENATE/pubs/evans/110406.pdf
 

Political donations

Democrat Senator Andrew Murray
has established a new website monitoring donations to political parties.
Senator Murray was one of the participants in an Audit workshop on Political
Finance and Government Advertising held in February 2006.
 

http://www.political-donations.org.au/
 

Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University

Canberra ACT 0200 

Tel: +61 2 6125 0696
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051

update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....

Watchdog independence
compromised?

In this new Audit discussion
paper, Peter Van Onselen (Edith Cowan University) considers the implications of
the WA government's decision to downgrade several independent watchdog posts.
The decision, affecting the Electoral Commissioner, the Commissioner for Public
Sector Standards, and the Information Commissioner, has obvious implications
for the standing of these posts within the public service and for the ability to
recruit candidates of the highest calibre to them in the future. But the role
of the WA government in the decision also raises serious questions about the
independence of these watchdog bodies, responsible to parliament, from the
government departments that they are supposed to scrutinise.

http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060515_pvo_watchdog.pdf

Electoral changes pushed
through House of Representatives

After minimal debate on 10 and 11
May, and three gag motions, the government's changes to the Commonwealth
Electoral Act were pushed through the House of Representatives on 11 May 2006.
The Democratic Audit has expressed serious concern over the impact of these
changes, which include early closure of the electoral roll and raising the
threshold for disclosure of political donations (see the Audit website). 

Independent Peter Andren moved
two sets of amendments, the first of which were supported by the ALP and related
to early closure of the roll and prisoner franchise. The second set proposed
eliminating the above-the-line option on Senate tickets in favour of partial
preferential voting below the line. This change would require preferences to be
expressed by voters for as many seats as to be filled, rather than for
preferences to flow in accordance with party deals few voters know about. The
current above-the-line option of party ticket voting is chosen by about 95 per
cent of voters, because otherwise they have to mark preferences for all
candidates below the line-a very laborious process. In NSW in the 2004 federal
election, voters would have had to mark 78 sequential preferences to register a
formal Senate vote below the line. It is not surprising that 97 per cent
decided not to do this, even if it meant their preferences then flowed in
directions they might not have approved of. 

Andren also proposed introducing
an expenditure cap of $50 000 for federal candidates, with an exception for
those standing in the largest electorates ($72 000). Such expenditure caps
would do much towards creating a level playing field for electoral competition.
Andren also proposed lowering the disclosure threshold for political donations,
rather than raising it, and requiring the written authority of the candidate
for any gifts or expenditure on their behalf. This set of amendments was
supported only by the three Independents in the House. The government's Bill is
due to be debated in the Senate when parliament resumes on 13 June.  

While the Australian government
may be making it 'harder to vote but easier to make secret donations to
political parties', the new Conservative government in Canada is moving in the
opposite direction. It has introduced amendments to the Canada Elections Act
that will introduce a limit of $1000 (previously $5000) on the amount an
individual may contribute to a party or candidate in a given year and totally
banning contributions by corporations, trade unions or associations (previously
a limit of $1000). The changes are to be found in Bill C-2, which had its First
Reading on 11 April 2006: ‘An Act providing for conflict of interest rules,
restrictions on election financing and measures respecting administrative
transparency, oversight and accountability’ (short title: Federal
Accountability Act).  

See: http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/bills.asp

Government cuts Senate
estimates

The Senate has voted to weaken
its ability to scrutinise the government after it passed government measures to
axe the Senate Estimates spillover days. The Estimates hearings could
previously continue onto Fridays if business demanded it. The government used
its narrow Senate majority to push through the changes. Both Labor and the
Democrats have condemned the move, claiming that the government is reneging on
its promise not to abuse its majority in the Senate to curtail the scrutiny
process. The government defended its move by claiming that the time available
for scrutiny was broadly comparable with other countries. 

Compulsory voting
Following the Joint Standing
Committee on Electoral Matter's recommendation that compulsory voting be
scrapped, the Australian Electoral Commission has published this review of the
arguments and includes some information from abroad.

http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/What/voting/compulsory_voting.pdf 

Ironically, the influential
British think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Reform, has recently
recommended that compulsory voting is the best solution for the ongoing problem
of poor turnout.

http://www.ippr.org.uk/pressreleases/?id=2083 

Less freedom more violence for
media workers

A report just published by the
Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) complains of an anti-media
environment which it blames on the growing legislated controls on media
freedom. It also expresses concern that media workers are increasingly the
targets of violence. The issues are raised in the MEAA's second report into the
state of press freedom in Australia launched on 28 April 2006 at the Australian
Press Freedom Dinner in Sydney.

http://www.alliance.org.au/images/stories/pdf/2006_press_freedom_report.pdf  

Unfairness in asylum decision
In a piece for New Matilda,
Julian Burnside QC criticises the Government's decision to process asylum
applications from ‘boatpeople’ off-shore. Not only is the move massively more
expensive, but also infringes basic human rights in order to appease the
Indonesian government. He goes on to criticise the Government's industrial
relations and national security reforms.

http://www.newmatilda.com//home/articledetail.asp?NewsletterID=210&ArticleID=1527&email=1 

UK civil liberties ‘rebalance’

In the, Prime Minister Tony Blair
has called for a ‘profound rebalancing’ of the civil liberties debate in the
UK. ‘Despite our attempts - and we have made many of them - to toughen and
reform the criminal justice system ... the criminal justice system is the
public service most distant from what reasonable people want’, he said.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1775420,00.html 

A brief history of sedition
This e-brief from the
Parliamentary Library provides an overview of the development of sedition law
in Australia, including the recent changes made under the Anti-Terrorism Act
2005.

http://www.aph.gov.au/library/INTGUIDE/LAW/sedition.htm 

Promoting democracy - a review

The Dutch Government has
published a study of efforts to promote democracy and to bridge the gap between
voters and elected representatives that they say has emerged throughout the
established democracies of the developed world. The study reviews the programs
of 18 OECD countries, including Australia, and, whilst the conclusions drawn
are aimed at the Netherlands, they will have resonance in all the countries
studied.

http://www.minbzk.nl/contents/pages/55271/promotingdemocracy.pdf 

Conference on legislatures and
human rights

The University of Melbourne's
Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies is hosting an international
conference exploring the role of legislatures in protecting human rights 20-22
July 2006. Further details are available from:

http://cccs.law.unimelb.edu.au/go/research-and-publications/legislatures-and-human-rights-project/international-conference-on-legislatures-and-the-protection-of-human-rights/index.cfm

 

Dr
Phil Larkin

Democratic
Audit of Australia

Political
Science

Australian
National University

Canberra ACT
0200
 

Tel:
+61 2 6125 0696 or 1600

Fax:
+61 2 6125 3051