Political Donations Reform

For far too long, anyone wanting to find out more about donations to SA political parties has come up against a disclosure system that is difficult to navigate and hides shady practices.

The Greens believe it shouldn't have to take someone hours of painstaking research to get basic information on political donations.

Big donations to political parties are extremely dangerous for our democracy. 

We urgently need much greater transparency and accountability by all political parties in how and when they disclose where they get their money from.

That's why the Greens have set up a new webpage to help shine a light on the murky world of political donations in SA.

Click here to access the new webpage.

Also, to help you understand the political donations rules that currently operate in SA, here is a briefing paper.

The Greens also believe that donations from property developers should be banned, as they have been in NSW.

“When favourable Government decisions follow cosy lunches bought by the big end of town there will always be a stench, even if the decision is ultimately the right one.” Read the rest of Mark's media release here.

Taxpayer-funded Government Advertising

After pushing for a Select Committee on Tax-Payer Funded Government Advertising Campaigns early in 2009, the Greens fully support the recommendations of the committee's report, such as:

• a requirement for all Government ad campaigns in excess of $50,000 to be assessed by the Auditor General with the total costs of all campaigns assessed by the Auditor General being made publicly available every six months

• a report evaluating the effectiveness of all advertising campaigns with a total cost in excess of $50,000 should be published on the department's or agency's website

• Including expenses incurred in production, development and evaluation as well as the actual cost of buying advertising time or space in the overall cost of advertising campaigns

• the total cost of Government advertising to be slashed by at least $20 million per year

As well as supporting all the Recommendations of the Select Committee, Mark Parnell MLC has formally recommended a major overhaul of the Advertising Policy and Guidelines.

"The Greens call for a major re-write of the Guidelines to get rid of the parts that are open to abuse."

"Otherwise, if the rules don't change, governments of both Labor and Liberal persuasion will not be able to help themselves misusing taxpayer's funds for their own political purposes," stated Mark in his media release.

This report marked the end of a year of strong campaigning by Mark and the Greens on the topic of taxpayer-funded government advertising. 

In February 2009, the Greens moved to set up Parliamentary Select Committee into Government advertising, in response to the latest blatantly political taxpayer funded advertising campaign.

"It is outrageous that South Australian taxpayers are paying for party political spin... Clearly the Government has lost its moral compass about what is and what is not an appropriate use of taxpayer's funds." See Mark's media release and his Motion in Parliament.

On 25 March 2009, Mark's motion passed the Legislative Council, and the Committee was established, electing Mark as chairman at the first meeting. The terms of reference for the committee are included in Mark's media release.

Although a committee investigating taxpayer-funded government advertising had already been set up, it didn't stop the government from releasing a series of advertisements last May spruiking the latest budget, at taxpayer expense.  Read Mark's response here.

Public pressure finally had an impact and on 12 August 2009, Premier Rann announced a new policy, banning MPs from appearing in taxpayer funded TV and radio ads. Coincidentally, the announcement came on the same day that his department was to appear before the committee. However, as Mark pointed out in his media release, ads can still be party political without the presence of an MP.

When the Head of the Premier's Department was interviewed by the committee, it was revealed that that 24 advertising campaigns in the past three years did not comply with the government's own guidelines. This is unacceptable, and these breaches were only revealed as a result of the committee, if the Greens had not set up this committee the public would never have known. Read Mark's media release here. 

 MPs' Salaries

The Greens believe that it is unfair for politicians to receive automatic pay rises without having to ask for them, while other workers have to fight tooth and nail to get pay justice.

After State politicians received their latest pay rise, in September 2009, Mark issued a media release critical of the unfair system that sets politicians' wages.

In October 2009, Mark introduced a Bill designed to make the system fairer. Read his speech here.

This bill had three basic purposes:

1. Stop the automatic flow-on to state politicians' wages, when Federal MP's receive a pay rise;

2. Put the SA Remuneration Tribunal in charge of setting SA MP's salaries; and,

3. Give MP's an opportunity to vote on the pay rise in Parliament.

Unfortunately, neither of the major parties supported the Bill. This was not the first time The Greens had tried to introduce a fairer system. In July 2007, after state politicians received pay increases totalling 13.7% over two years, Mark introduced a similar Bill, which was also not supported by either major party. Read Mark's media release and speech in parliament from 2007.

The Greens will continue to campaign against the unfair system that gives automatic pay rises for politicians, especially while teachers, nurses and other public sector employees have to rally, protest and campaign to achieve fair pay rises.

The Greens - Cleaning Up Politics!

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