Democracy for Sale

Lee Rhiannon  Hack Triple J   4 August 2010

Hear Lee Rhiannon speak about the tobacco industry, which is a large donor to the Liberal Party, backing the campaign by the Alliance of Australian Retailers against the federal Labor government's proposal to mandate plain packaging for cigarettes in order to reduce the numbers of people smoking.

Academic Peter van Onselen also discusses the issue.   Senator John Faulkner talks about the blocking by the Coalition of greater transparency of the source of political donations.

The Australian   4 August 2010

The Liberal Party has enlisted fundraisers Ron Walker and John Calvert Jones in a desperate bid to add to its campaign coffers before the 21 August poll.

"Ron and John are wearing out shoe leather in the corridors of Melbourne and Sydney," according to a Liberal Party source.

Lee Rhiannon  Sydney Morning Herald Opinion Column 28 July 2010

Lee Rhiannon writes that with the federal election just weeks away and seven months before the one in NSW, the political fund-raising season is on in earnest.  Promises of electoral funding reform by Coalition and Labor leaders appear to be forgotten.  With Abbott totally missing from the debate, now is the time for Prime Minister Gillard to ensure such reform does not fall away in the manoeuvring of this campaign.

Royce Millar  The Age  27 July 2010

FORMER federal treasurer Peter Costello is at the centre of a heated row within Liberal ranks over his refusal to relinquish almost $1 million donated to the conservative cause.

With the party crying poor and warning that it is being outspent by Labor in the current federal election campaign, some senior Liberals are frustrated by Mr Costello's squirrelling away of donations in an associated entity of the Liberal Party known as the Higgins 200 Foundation.

There also is anger in the Liberal Party about Costello causing a byelection leading the Libs to spend $500,000 defending a safe seat from a Greens challenge.