More regulated, more level? Assessing the impact of spending and donation caps on Australian State elections

Rayner, Jennifer

doi:10.22459/pr.10.2016.06

Cited by 2 publications

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“…The rules around lobbying and political donations similarly influence the nature of political activities pursued as well as the accessibility of data. While a review of the Australian lobbyist and political donation regulations is outside the scope of this paper, we direct readers to recent reviews on this subject [ 41 – 44 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A proposal for systematic monitoring of the commercial determinants of health: a pilot study assessing the feasibility of monitoring lobbying and political donations in Australia

Lacy-Nichols

Cullerton

2023

Global Health

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Background The commercial determinants of health include a range of practices to promote business interests, often at the expense of public health. Corporate political practices, such as lobbying and campaign donations, are used to influence policy makers and foster a political and regulatory environment conducive to business interests. Despite recognition of their public health importance, thus far there are relatively few efforts to systematically monitor commercial political practices. Methods A pilot study was conducted to explore the feasibility of systematically monitoring two political practices – lobbying and political contributions – for ‘harmful industries’ (alcohol, gambling, ultra-processed food and tobacco industries) in Australia. Potential data sources were reviewed to compare data availability and detail. Two publicly available datasets were selected for the pilot: ministerial diaries for New South Wales and annual donor filings from the Australian Electoral Commission. Google Data Studio was used to analyse and visualise findings. Results The pilot study resulted in the creation of several interactive charts and dashboards that supported analysis and interrogation of the data. These charts helped to easily convey the volume of lobbying and political donations, as well as changes over time. For example, we found that between July 2014 and December 2020, NSW ministers had 20,607 meetings, of which 634 meetings were with harmful industries. And between 1998 and 2020, a total of $576,519,472 disclosed donations were made to political parties and other entities, of which $35,823,937 were from harmful industries. Conclusions Opportunities to develop a program to monitor commercial political practices face several challenges including access barriers arising from poor availability and detail of data, technical barriers arising from the format of data disclosures and coding challenges arising from the diverse nature of the commercial sector. Despite these challenges, our pilot study demonstrates the potential to implement a monitoring program and to expand its scope to other commercial determinants of health.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A proposal for systematic monitoring of the commercial determinants of health: a pilot study assessing the feasibility of monitoring lobbying and political donations in Australia

Lacy-Nichols

Cullerton

2023

Global Health

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“…Not only is it the most populous jurisdiction that has adopted the regulatory approach, it also most powerfully exemplifies this approach. Moreover, there have only been two systematic studies into the impact of these paradigm‐shifting expression laws: one on their impact on election spending (Anderson and Tham ) and another on the impact of caps on political donations and election spending (Rayner ). Such limited research is in contrast with the international, and especially American, scholarship (see, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Less Money, Fewer Donations: The Impact of New South Wales Political Finance Laws on Private Funding of Political Parties

et al. 2018

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The role of money in politics has been a concern internationally with strong calls for stricter regulation of such funds. In Australia, this has resulted in a shift from laissez-faire to increased regulation. Yet, there has been little research into the impact of this shift. To address this gap, this article examines the impact of four New South Wales political finance laws enacted from 2008 to 2012, which reflect the emergent regulatory approach. Focusing on the total number and value of political donations made to New South Wales political parties, it assesses the effects of the four Acts individually, as well as their overall impact, to test the assumption of legal effectiveness. It finds strong support for two key expectations resulting from the assumption: first, the raft of legislation will reduce the total number and value of political donations to the parties and second, that the 2010 legislation, which imposed caps on political donations and election spending, and substantially increased public funding, would be the most significant of the four Acts in terms of impact due to its scope and depth.

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More regulated, more level? Assessing the impact of spending and donation caps on Australian State elections

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

A proposal for systematic monitoring of the commercial determinants of health: a pilot study assessing the feasibility of monitoring lobbying and political donations in Australia

A proposal for systematic monitoring of the commercial determinants of health: a pilot study assessing the feasibility of monitoring lobbying and political donations in Australia

Less Money, Fewer Donations: The Impact of New South Wales Political Finance Laws on Private Funding of Political Parties

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