Andrew Leigh

Federation Chamber

18 June, 2018

Over the years, the Liberal Party has accepted a number of significant foreign donations, including $14,000 from Kazumasa Ikoma of Japan, $50,000 from Kin Chao Sun of Hong Kong and $1.5 million from British citizen Michael Ashcroft. For over a year, Labor has refused to take foreign donations, but the Liberal Party still remains open to taking foreign cash.

If you care about foreign influence on Australian elections, if you are worried about the hacking of US voter register databases in 2016, then you should be committed to getting foreign money out of Australian politics. Bill Shorten has moved a private member's motion in order to stop foreign donations coming into Australian politics.

But somehow the government has managed to morph the debate over foreign donations into another part of its attack on charities and not-for-profit organisations. Labor supports the principles outlined in the Hands Off Our Charities alliance statement. Hands Off Our Charities includes Oxfam, Save the Children, WWF and Human Rights Watch.

We believe we can end the corrosive influence of foreign cash in Australian politics without stymieing the important work of charities. We call on the Liberals to stop taking foreign donations, to follow Labor's lead and to pass a ban on foreign donations that doesn't hurt charities.

ENDS

Authorised by Noah Carroll ALP Canberra.