Labor and the Coalition are trying to cancel Clive Palmer and the Teals by reducing the size of a legal donation to would-be politicians. Deep-pocketed people like Palmer and Climate 200’s Simon Holmes à Court are clearly targets of these potential new laws that will define donation rules.

The AFR’s Tom Melroy highlights the case of former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who lost the usually safe seat of Kooyong to Monique Ryan, who spent $2.1 million to win Kooyong after getting big financial support from Climate 200.

Teals like Allegra Spender spent $2.1 million to win the Sydney seat of Wentworth, while Zoe Daniel outlaid $1.5 million to take the seat of Goldstein. The big parties see that they have a vested interest to make donation rules harder for the likes of billionaires and well-heeled organisations to spend up to turf out big party candidates or sitting members.

Climate 200, which aims to get politicians with strong green/environmental credentials into Parliament, saw activist Holmes à Court donate $250,000, thanks to his family’s philanthropic fund.

Other big names used their money for a political win, as Melroy reports. “Atlassian founders Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes were also major backers,” he revealed. “Mr Cannon-Brookes’ foundation donated $1.18 million to Climate 200 and two individual candidates, while Mr Farquhar and his wife Kim Jackson donated $1.5 million.”

In case you’re wondering, yes, unions and their support for Labor will be affected by any new rules. Meanwhile, the right-leaning Advance group will also have their support for the Coalition curtailed.

If the plans of Labor and the Coalition become law, how will it work?

1. There’ll be a limit of $20,000 a year from an individual or organisation.
2. Parties will have a $90 million cap on their spending in a national election.
3. Donors will also be limited to about $600,000 in cumulative contributions annually.
4. An electorate level spending cap of $800,000 will also be introduced, which will affect candidates like the Teals.

Melroy says: “Aggregation of donations will still be allowed by groups like Climate 200, provided the Australian Electoral Commission is satisfied the new caps are not being breached”.

5. Names of donors giving $1,000 or more will be disclosed, down from the current threshold of $16,900.
6. Public funding for political parties will be increased from about $3.50 a vote to about $5.

This is clearly a reaction of the big parties to the growing threat of activists and billionaires who use huge wads of cash to have their way with elections. However, the consequences of this monetary manipulation of the election process doesn’t always deliver unwanted results and candidates. For example, Allegra Spender is seen as an asset to the parliament and her constituency, but she’s a fly in the ointment for the big parties.

On the other hand, Clive Palmer spent $117 million on the 2022 election and the only good aspect of that was that it brought no wins or seats for the United Australia Party.

Of course, these rules will have to be passed by the Parliament. You can bet your sweet bippy that Palmer will take this to the High Court. Clive does seem to love an expensive High Court battle.