Federal Government
HUMBUGGERS: Greens party promise voters one thing on election finance while voting another to look after their rich donor mates
The Greens political party has been accused of hypocrisy and ignoring their own policy platform following their decision in the Senate this week to block the federal government’s election campaign finance reforms that would have scrapped the tax incentive to give loot to political parties.
This week the Greens party moved an amendment to government proposals that removed the tax deductibility for political donations for corporates and individuals.
GREENS POLICIES IGNORED BY GREENS PARTY
This is in breach of Greens party policies which decree:
The Australian Greens will support the following electoral reforms… public funding of elections to eliminate private funding.
Prior to the last federal election, the Greens party leader Bob Brown insisted they remained committed to eliminating private funding of election campaigns.
GREEDY GREENS GARBAGE MONSTER
They are not seeking to reposition their rhetoric away from stopping private funding and towards banning corporate donations. We wonder why?
It’s because the Greens party are raising money from their rich mates and doctors’ wives with some alacrity. So much so that the greedy Greens were not only gorging themselves on a 500% increase in donations from rich donors prior to the last election, they even publicly boasted about it, saying it indicated more public support.
“They can’t have it both ways, pledging to support the abolition of private campaign funding while simultaneously allowing high income earners to get the tax system to give them as much as half their donation back,” one disgusted Labor observer noted to VEXNEWS this afternoon.
THEY SEE THE SPLINTER IN THE EYES OF THEIR FOES WHILE IGNORING THE PLANK IN THEIR OWN
The Greens party – especially in NSW – have loudly campaigned against private funding of election campaigns.
They operate a website titled “Democracy 4 Sale” which argues that political parties are willing to sell policy formation and access to decision-makers in return for money, despite producing no evidence of any such thing.
The Greens party site argues that poltical donations “taint the democratic process” and that they aim to “raise public awareness about the corrupting influence of political donations and the need for reform of the system…”
They think it’s all dirty but they’re happy to muddy it up when it suits them. They say they’re opposed to corporate donations but are happy to take donations from people who work in companies. It’s a conclusion that only be arrived at with a serious amount of ganja helping illuminate the logical path.
The assumption that giving money to a political party buys decision makers has never been supported by any proof. It’s the sort of John Pilger-esque conspiracy theory in which too many Greens party activists indulge. Perhaps at this point in the cycle of hypocrisy they should stop judging others by their own venal standards. If their policies and decisions on votes are available for sale, they should perhaps be honest about it. If they’re not, they should stop accusing others until they have obtained evidence substantiating their most serious of allegations.
Private donations to the political process – providing they are properly regulated – are a vital part of democracy ensuring that it’s not just government bureaucrats and politicians who decide who can fully participate in elections. Abolishing tax deductibility seems stupid to us but opposing the change is utterly inconsistent with stated Greens party policies and mantra.
They are the most intellectually dishonest players in the Senate, despite the intense competition offered by the likes of compulsory student unionism advocate and agrarian socialist Senator Barnaby Joyce, who will hopefully confront permanent political retirement when he runs in the lower house in next year’s federal election as part of his move to replace current Nats leader Warren Truss.
Discussion
8 comments for “HUMBUGGERS: Greens party promise voters one thing on election finance while voting another to look after their rich donor mates”
Post a comment
Where’s my $950 at Bobby Brown ???
Heaven forbid we actually might see hypocracy from this morally bankrupt middle class of self-guilters and kleptomanics? And I thought things might be bad if Red Ted won the next State ballot?
I see no problem in removing tax deductibility from private and corporate donations as long as it is equally applied to unions and third party “in kind” advertising.
Otherwise it just an ALP ruse to reduce funding to alternative parties (not just the Libs).
A Greens Party member has just been elected President of the left-leaning Victorian Local Governance Association.
An attempt at a takeover by Liberal activists failed. Several Liberals have been elected to the VLGA governing body, elected by proportional representation, and that’s good as it will keep a check on the Socialist Left ALP. The Greens vote all over the place and they can’t be relied on to consistently vote with the Socialist Left. They often vote with the Libs.
Damien Kingsbury, partner of Rae Perry, has been elected and he should be a stable influence on the ultra-left and Greens.
What a stupid article this is.
What is it based on? I see no statistics, no factual evidence, just hardline right-wing opinion dressed up as news.
I just hope nobody takes it seriously.
The greens are the great impostor of our progressive movement. this is clear. Wait for Bob’s personal implosion!
I don’t know anything about greens for sale nut I’m more than happy to pay for a bit of purple helmeted warrior action. Sav is still not stading to attention
This article misses one important point: if I throw $1k into a political party and then claim back $400 in tax, the result is $400 of public money funding the political process and only $600 of my money.
The greens are correctly following their own policy which is to maximise the public funding of elections and minimise the private funding. You might not like the policy but you can’t fault them on consistency.