In another display of blatant heel-dragging over donations’ reform, Attorney General, Elise Archer, has announced a further two month delay on consultation of the Electoral Act review which was due to close today.
Two hours before the close of submissions on the Interim Report, Ms Archer announces the Departments of Premier and Cabinet and Justice will now have another two months to consider a High Court decision made three weeks ago.
This is ridiculous and subversive to a rigorous review process. It is more evidence of this Liberal Government’s allergy to transparency and accountability.
The Liberals could not be more obvious about their reluctance to introduce stronger donations’ disclosure laws for Tasmania.
Their narrowly focused review process is a minimum of two years long with their Interim Report very clearly pointing to no appetite for substantial reform on donations’ transparency.
Interestingly, it would appear Ms Archer used the same photograph of herself in the Interim Report that was on her election posters, which were in significant part funded by corporate donations and tangible support from gambling venues.
The Attorney General is horribly conflicted on this review. As a candidate, she accepted the gambling industry’s largesse and has publicly supported the industry since.
No wonder there’s so little appetite for reform.
Tasmanians were given two months to respond to the Interim Report which came out last December. Now the Attorney General is giving the review team two months to respond to a narrowly relevant High Court decision.
If it wasn’t so destructive to our democracy, it would be laughable.
