24th Feb 2020, 4:11 PM – Senate Motions - Parliament - Transparency

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Queensland Senator Larissa Waters (Greens), which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) former Liberal Opposition Leader, Dr John Hewson, in an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 13 February 2020, called on all political parties to fix weaknesses in the parliamentary system, rather than seeking to exploit them, and

(ii) Dr Hewson identified a 6 point plan to clean up politics:

(A) public funding for election campaigns and limits on campaign spending,

(B) transparency around lobbying, including real-time disclosure of all ministerial meetings,

(C) truth in advertising legislation,

(D) introduce penalties for false, deceptive, and misleading conduct by parliamentarians,

(E) independent standards for candidates, and

(F) a fully funded Independent Commission Against Corruption to oversee all activities of our politicians, bureaucrats and federal government, with the capacity to receive anonymous references; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to listen to their former leader and take action to implement Dr Hewson's plan.