Deeper pockets needed

The NSW Premier says he may ban political donations and revamp the system of public funding of elections. The intention is admirable, though I don't believe for a minute the Premier is a passionate convert to the concept of an election as a fairly run race, being as doing (or at least saying) something was forced on him following the scandalous behaviour of members of his own party on Wollongong Council.

Don't hold your breath for any actual change in the reality of the electoral process. Even if donations are banned, the parties will still be free to hold their inevitable raffles and other fund-raisiers. Till now a typical raffle might have as a prize a bottle of wine or similar. If donations are banned expect the typical prize to be a car or overseas trip. Tickets may still be a dollar, so the party faithful will still be able to show their support by buying 5 or 10 tickets but the big ticket sales will be made to those who currently buy the ear of a Minister via a large donation.

-"How many tickets for you, Mr. Property Developer?"

-"1000 thanks and by the way, who do I speak to to make an appointment with the Minister?"

-"I'm sorry Sir, I think you need 5000 tickets for that".

The second thing that is unlikely to change is the minimum number of first preference votes a candidate is required to achieve in order to qualify for any public funding at all. Currently Federally and in NSW the threshold stands at 4%.

This doesn't seem much but that's several thousand votes. In the recent Federal election for the seat of Gilmore there were nine candidates including myself. Of the nine only three (Labor, Liberal, Greens) qualified for funding. The other six received no 'reward' for their efforts at helping make democracy work.

Indeed in my case, as the only Independent candidate, I had to meet virtually all my expenses from my own pocket.
I don't expect that anyone will be doing us little guys any favours when the Electoral Act is redrafted. The system is currently designed to funnel the majority of the money into the coffers of the Labor and Liberal parties.

A 'donation-free-zone' Electoral Act will simply deliver more taxpayer money to the BIG TWO. The only real difference is that developers will have to get deeper pockets, not in order to fork out more money but to hold all those raffle tickets.

Link- http://www.efa.nsw.gov.au/state_government_elections/election_funding__and__entitlements

The New, New Australia Day

Readers will be aware that only last year did my family decide on a day on which to celebrate Australia Day. see Australia Day takes a giant step forward by going back one below.

However we now have an even better one; Feb 13, the anniversary of The Apology. So next year skip the Old New Australia Day, the Old Australia Day and save yourself for Friday February 13. Let's have a party to celebrate the New Australia's first birthday.

Human ingenuity knows no bounds

I just logged on to find that the counter at right has ticked over the magic $500,000,000,000 (US$500 billion) mark.

What a shame to have missed the actual moment when $499,999,999,999 clicked over by the cost of one more bullet. Must have been exciting. Let me know if you were actually watching at the time. What a hoot.

I must set an alarm or something to let me know when the $1,000,000,000,000 mark is close. Mustn't miss that one. What a milestone for humanity that will be.

Developers, developers everywhere and not an Independent Councillor in sight

Well Councillwatchers, what an interesting few weeks it's been. We now know for sure what many of us have long suspected; Wollongong City Council has been riddled with corruption for many years.

But not only Councillors and council staff seem to have been trawlled from the bottom of the pond by the ICAC enquiry. Several State Labour pollies have been drawn into the net as well. Of the four (Brown, Hay, Campbell, Tripodi) only Wollongong MP Noreen Hay seems like she may have a case to answer. Her, or her agent's, oversight in not including some $65,000 of donations including some from, yep you guessed it, developers, is hardly confidence-inspiring.

In the last few days the spotlight has turned on Shoalhaven Mayor Greg Watson's Shoalhaven Independents Group Party, NSW's sixth most successful party in soliciting donations from developers.

What can be learned from all this? Get the parties; all parties, out of local government. Let's get back to the notion that Council is about people representing the people, not parties representing some people and certainly not parties representing developers.