Green Party seeks to cap political donations, stop companies donating

The Green Party wants to cap political donations at $30,000, stop companies from donating and set up a public register for lobbyists to get "big money" out of politics.The Greens have written two members' bills, the Electoral (Donations) Amendment Bill and the Regulation of Lobbying Bill, seeking to limit the influence of money and lobbying in government.The Electoral (Donations) Amendment Bill would cap donations one person can make to $30,000 and make it so no companies, trusts or other organisations like unions can donate and names and postcodes of people who donate above $1000 in a year (down from $6000) would be published.Meanwhile, the Regulation of Lobbying Bill would see a public register of professional lobbyists set up.Lobbyists would be required to report every four months on who they lobbied and what they were lobbying for and an independent Lobbying Integrity Commission would run the register, write the code of conduct and enforce the rules.The bill would also introduce a stand-down period of two years for ministers before they can get into lobbying. MPs, ministerial staff and senior public servants would need to wait one year.Co-leader Marama Davidson claimed a handful of "very rich and powerful people and corporations" could buy influence with the government."Successive governments have changed our electoral rules to suit themselves and done nothing about big corporate money in politics. This government has gone further, weakening donation laws, making it harder to vote, and stripping thousands of people of their human right to vote," she said.Fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said lobbying was legal and part of politics, but almost never on the record."Professional lobbyists will be registered and report every four months on who they lobbied, who they were working for and what they wanted. The public can then determine who politicians are listening to.""Real estate agents, lawyers and electricians all have to meet professional standards, and lobbyists should too," she said.Speaking to media, Davidson said the rules would apply to everyone, including themselves, after they received a donation of $100,000."We have been upfront and consistently transparent about what we stand for."Our wealthy donors, over many, many, many terms have been signing up to our wealth taxes and our environmental protection priorities," she said.