Property Developers to be Banned from NSW Labor Party
For a long time I have been strongly opposed to the NSW State Government’s decision to ban property developers, hoteliers and tobacco companies from making political donations. While electoral funding transparency is critically important, outright banning a class of business people from participating in the political process is troublesome to say the least, particularly where that prohibition continues in NSW notwithstanding recent reforms by the current NSW State Government to limit political donations to individuals with a maximum cap.
I would have thought the so-called corruption risk is negligible given these limitations. In any case, if the State Government was serious about mitigating corruption risk amongst elected officials, then similar to the abolition of Part 3A of the Planning Act which means the Minister no longer decides major planning decisions, the State Government as part of its planning reforms should mandate Independent Hearing and Assessment Panels and prohibit locally elected officials from deciding on individual development applications.
Further, in my view not only is the donation prohibition on individuals who are property developers, hoteliers or work for tobacco companies unfairly discriminatory and undemocratic, it is also likely to be unconstitutional as an impingement on our constitutional right to freedom of political communication.
Now it appears that the NSW Labor Party intends to ban property developers (not sure where they stand with hoteliers and tobacconists) from further participation in the democratic process.
Where will this nonsense end? When will the Labor Party actually fix the problem it faces by sacking any parliamentarian who won their pre-selection with the support of anyone who is found by ICAC to be corrupt? When will the Labor Party finally sever its ties to the Union movement and become a membership based party?
Aren’t we all property developers when we renovate our own home? How do you properly define who is and who is not a property developer? Putting it mildly, the NSW political donations Legislation has an absurdly complex definition. Using property developers as a scapegoat is hardly going to solve NSW Labor’s rotten culture, nor the likely corrupt practices of current and former parliamentarians.
I can’t think of one Labor official who is caught up in ICAC who is a property developer. If our newly recycled Prime Minister wanted to ‘solve’ the problem of NSW Labor, shouldn’t he instead have banned publishers, farmers, teachers and nurses union officials from the NSW Labor Party?
Will property developers next lose their right to participate in local elections?
Does our Prime Minister seriously believe that the vast majority of property developers are not law abiding citizens who want to positively contribute to their community? Sure property developers want to make a profit, but isn’t that true of everyone who is in business? The last time I checked, there are not too many employees who are willing to work if they don’t get paid!
Why not stop at banning property developers and instead ban all business people and their dependents from the ranks of the NSW Labor Party? While I have no doubt that Labor’s business oriented membership is appallingly low, why not remove anyone who is a business person or their dependents from the NSW Labor Party? Oh goodness, if that happened wouldn’t that mean that our Prime Minister would not be eligible to join his own political party in NSW due to his wife’s very substantial business activities?
Does anyone seriously believe that prohibiting any category of person, who complies with the minimum Constitutional criteria for eligibility to be elected to State of Federal politics as a potential candidate for a political party is likely to stand up to a Constitutional challenge?
Does anyone actually believe in freedom of political association any more and the right for a law abiding citizen to participate in our democratic political processes? Is electoral apartheid the new norm for Australian politics?
Lesli Berger
General Manager
Fivex Commercial Property