The Myth: “Voices” candidates cashed up by “secret” donors

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The Reality: the prime minister who levels that accusation against “Voices of” candidates is the most secretive and least transparent prime minister in the country’s history. The fact that Scotty Smirk and Mirrors can unblushingly level that accusation against the slew of Independent candidates standing in Liberal electorate after Liberal electorate while at the same time refuse to reveal the source of the Coalition’s own campaign funds (Clive Palmer says hi) shows unheard of chutzpah.

Wanted, one large mirror: do Liberals seriously want to whine about ‘secrecy’?

The government's demand for greater transparency by grassroots independent candidates sits rather poorly with its refusal to reveal the source of much of its revenue.

Bernard Keane 14 December 2021 www.crikey.com.au/2021/12/14/do-liberals-seriously-want-to-whine-about-secrecy/



“Organisations, including activist organisations seeking to influence election outcomes, will no longer be able to shroud their electoral income in secrecy,” Scott Morrison’s right-hand man Ben Morton wrote to parliamentarians yesterday, urging them to dob in to the Australian Electoral Commission any such organisations under the government’s tightened rules around political advocacy.

The organisations he’s talking about? That would be the “Voices of” candidates emerging in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and, now, South Australia. The email is the latest salvo from a government panicked at the emergence of a series of grassroots independent candidates in safe seats occupied by do-nothing or low-profile Liberal moderates who have been complicit in the Nationals’ successful push to derail climate policy.

What’s amusing about Morton’s demand that such groups and those supporting them should “no longer be able to shroud their electoral income in secrecy” is that the Liberal Party is the biggest offender when it comes to just that.

Unlike most other parties, the Liberals refuse to report any contributions below the statutory threshold. Labor, the Greens, Clive Palmer and One Nation all report either all amounts above $1000, or every dollar. But not the Liberals or the Nationals. You can give $14,500 to every single Liberal branch and neither you nor they have to report it, and the Liberals do not.

That’s why millions of dollars in contributions to the federal Liberal Party are from hidden sources: according to Australian Electoral Commission data, around 22% of the federal party’s revenue in 2019-20, or $2.3 million, is shrouded in secrecy. Also hidden is 9% of its revenue in the election year of 2018-19, or over $4 million. Between 2015-20, the federal Liberals received over $12 million in revenue of which we have no idea of the origins.

But the federal party is a haven of transparency compared to other branches: between 2015-20, the Liberal National Party failed to explain where around $36 million in revenue came from, routinely reporting the source of less than half of its revenue.

Still, with Ben Morton assigning himself the role of smiter of the secret, we’re sure his home division, the Western Australian Liberals — which Morton ran for several years — are a beacon of transparency and report the source of every dollar they receive, right? Alas, that shroud stretches all the way across the Nullarbor: in 2019-20, the WA Libs didn’t disclose the source of over three-quarters of their revenue. They didn’t disclose the source of 65% in 2018-19; in 2017-18 it was 78%; 51% in 2016-17 and 75% in 2015-16. That’s over $20 million in secret money.

We need not remind Crikey readers that the Coalition has steadfastly opposed every single attempt to increase transparency in political donations after John Howard lifted reporting thresholds from $1000 to $10,000, indexed.

It seems transparency is for the little people. But those who buy influence with the Liberals should be left undisturbed.

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Confessions of a Liberal voter show why Scott Morrison is stuck in a self-made trap

By political correspondent Brett Worthington 18 December 2021 www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-18/election-morrison-albanese-independents-voters-left-behind/100701910


Scott Morrison's political future is on the line with an election slated for the first half of next year.

An old friend sheepishly admitted after the last election that she'd voted for the Greens. A child of Melbourne's affluent eastern suburbs, it's quite the confession for someone who had so wholeheartedly voted for John Howard's Liberals at her first chance. It's not that she regretted how she voted in 2007. It's just that she could no longer see herself in the modern Liberal Party. She'd held her nose and voted for Tony Abbott's Coalition in 2013, tired of a Labor government that had spent years in-fighting and tearing down prime ministers. Voting for Malcolm Turnbull's Liberals three years later was a no-brainer. This was a Prime Minister in whom she saw her own values reflected back at her.

But Scott Morrison proved a bridge too far. This, she felt, was now a Liberal Party that didn't believe in climate change, same-sex marriage or a woman's right to choose. After all, perception in politics is everything. A born-and-bred Liberal voter, the thought of voting for Labor was just unimaginable, especially one lead by former union heavyweight Bill Shorten. So she parked her vote with the Greens, with no independent to turn to. Sure, it's a sample size of one. But if the hysterics coming from the blokes leading the Liberal Party are anything to go by, they're worried that this isn't an isolated case. And like the aftermath of any big night on the town, this headache is one they can only blame on themselves.

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Allegra Spender grew up in a "family of Liberals" but will contest the next election as an independent.

Liberals take aim at independents

The Liberal Party is clearly feeling the threat from independents, many of whom are cashed up and coming for incumbents in what, historically, have been safe seats. Federal director Andrew Hirst used a fundraising email earlier this week to dub them "faux independents" running against Liberals as part of a "left-wing agenda". The Prime Minister went further, insisting that a vote for an independent was a vote for Labor.

You could only imagine what Bob Katter must have thought when he heard that. What Morrison didn't mention is that there's a common theme among many of the independents: They're disaffected former Liberal voters themselves.

"We’re a family of Liberals," said Allegra Spender when she announced she would run as an independent in Malcolm Turnbull's former seat of Wentworth. The daughter of a former Liberal MP, she cited climate change, integrity and the economy as why she was seeking election against the seat's incumbent, Dave Sharma.

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Katie Allen, left, has been highly visible during Scott Morrison's visits to Melbourne in recent weeks.

The threat Sharma is facing isn't unlike those his Liberal colleagues are facing in other wealthy electorates throughout Sydney and Melbourne. There's no shortage of irony that the politicians facing threats from independents are moderate Liberals: the pro same-sex marriage, climate change-believing politicians. Although much has been made about these independents' campaigns, one factor that will likely help the incumbents is they're not polarising national figures such as Abbott or Sophie Mirabella were when they lost their traditionally safe Liberal seats.

Labor no stranger to crossbench threats

It's not uncommon that a governing party would face challenges from those dissatisfied with how they're leading the nation. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese knows all too well the threat that the Greens posed him and other inner-city MPs during Labor's years in power. With the exception of the seat of Melbourne, which Labor lost to the Greens in 2010, the ALP retained its seats. The Liberal Party will likely do the same, despite the high-profile and cashed-up nature of their opponents.

But winning isn't the only benchmark of success for independents running in this election. They've forced Liberals to spend time in otherwise safe seats and kept home politicians who could otherwise be travelling the country helping others get elected. Their candidacy comes with a trap for Morrison. In sandbagging urban seats, while trying to make gains elsewhere, a failure to tread carefully will lead to accusations of shapeshifting, selling different messages to different electorates. Just ask Shorten how that fared for his leadership during the last campaign.

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(From previous post)

Election campaign well underway

In recent weeks, it hasn't been what they've been saying so much as where the leaders have been going that's mattered. Freed from lockdowns and quarantine, Morrison and Albanese have been jetting up and down the east coast, visiting Brisbane's suburbs, western Sydney and Tasmania's north. These are the regions that will determine the election. Irrespective of who wins, most expect it will be tight, a prospect further emboldening independents hoping to become kingmakers.

But this week also offered a stark reminder about just how unpredictable the coming months will be. Surging COVID-19 cases in Sydney and Melbourne offered a cold shower for those wanting to declare the virus behind us. Northern Tasmania's jumping castle tragedy — and its heartbreaking scenes — also meant the Prime Minster postponed a planned visit. It was an unsurprising decision from a man who learned from the 2019 summer bushfires how damaging an ill-conceived trip to a region struck by tragedy can be.


Some Cobargo residents refused to shake Scott Morrison's hand, others hurled abuse at him.

But, on a brutal political level, it kept him away from a place where there are two seats — Braddon and Bass — that he needs to hold onto if he's to stay in power. Like dollars spent sandbagging those urban Liberal seats, any day kept away from an electorate he is keen to win makes securing the Coalition's fourth term even harder for Morrison. It's becoming increasingly personal between Morrison and Albanese, with no shortage of personal attacks being levelled.

Here, too, lies a trap for Labor. Voters will ultimately cast their judgement on what affects them, not what offends them. So, while they might be offended by Morrison, that doesn't mean they won't be willing to vote for him. Morrison famously declared that he believed in miracles after pulling off a shock victory in 2019. Divine intervention might be called on again. But this time it'll be a case of Morrison insisting voters should stick with the devil they know.