At the moment, our democracy is for sale.
Politicians should work for all of us, but instead they work in the interests of their big corporate donors.
Since the last federal election, Labor has been rejecting bills from the Greens and independents for electoral reform – including truth in political advertising, donation reform and transparency, and on-the-day electoral enrolment.
Now that Labor's long-promised final report from the Joint Standing Committee into Electoral Matters (JSCEM) is here, it has zero detail on how the Government plans to deliver improved transparency and integrity to our elections.
The only thing it promises is a "bipartisan" approach to reform, meaning just Labor and the Liberals will have any say. But, in case you missed it, the combined major party vote has been steadily declining for decades – from 98% in 1951 to just 68% at the last election.
It's clear the political class is feeling the heat after the last election.
With the Greens' landslide result and independents winning across metropolitan Liberal seats, it's no wonder that the major parties are teaming up for a dirty deal that locks in the two-party system.
Propping up the dying two-party system is not electoral reform, it’s a rort. We need real reform to clean up our dirty donation laws.
If Labor is genuine about electoral reform, they would work with the whole Parliament to deal with misinformation and dark money, not shutting us out from the conversation altogether.