Independents To Force Action On Gambling, Lobbying Laws
Independents are pressing hot-button problems such as prohibiting betting ads, opening ministerial journals to the general public and curbing the influence of political lobbyists.
Crossbenchers have outlined a list of crucial top priorities if they're re-elected into a hung parliament, telling a transparency online forum they'll require the federal government to act on the largely unblemished problems.
Reforming lobbying, allowing the nationwide anti-corruption commission to hold public hearings, creating a whistleblower protection authority and having fact in political advertising laws are among the targets for crossbench MPs.
This included Allegra Spender, Zali Steggall, Monique Ryan, Andrew Wilkie, Kate Chaney and Senator David Pocock.
Ms Steggall pointed to consumer protections versus deceptive and misleading ads, comparing it with no fact in political advertising laws.
"It's like we don't value our voting rights the same method as we value our customer rights," she stated.
Senator Pocock called lobbying laws "an absolute joke", saying 80 percent of lobbyists weren't covered by the standard procedure and there were no genuine penalties for misbehavior.
The senator and Dr Ryan have pushed in parliament for laws that would open ministerial journals so the public can discover out about ministers consulting with lobbyists.
Ms Spender also named an overall ban on betting advertisements after Labor shelved plans to do something about it.
"This is a contest between beneficial interests who are winning to date, versus neighborhood interests who understand that this requires to be prohibited and I will battle for that," she stated.
Ms Spender is likewise fighting the Australian Electoral Commission for more openness over its findings that a person person was accountable for sending out some 47,000 unauthorised pamphlets targeting her in her electorate of Wentworth.
The commission stated the individual acted alone, had no link to a political party or candidates objecting to the seat and it was thinking about whether to promote civil penalties for breaking electoral law after the May 3 .
Ms Spender expressed issue about keeping the identity concealed, asking "how can citizens think about the source if the AEC will not recognize that source", in recommendation to the laws needing authorisation for transparency purposes.