Planning Commission Won’t Remove Donations Stench

“The PAC is appointed by the Minister, it only deals with matters referred to it by the Minister and it can only provide advice to the Minister. It was never going to be independent and it was never going to overcome the strong public perception that political donations are tainting the development approval process,” said Ms Hale.

“The government has been trying to look like it is doing something about the stench from political donations but it has done little more than make a series of trivial announcements that will make no significant difference.”

“It is time the government delivered reform with real substance. That means banning donations from developers.”

“The public does not accept that it is legitimate for a developer with a major development application before the Labor government to be making large political donations to the Labor Party,“ Ms Hale said.

“Whether or not the Minister sends it off to the hand-picked PAC to give advice is irrelevant. The Minister is not bound by the PAC’s advice. In the end the Minister makes the decision.”

“New guidelines for Councillors say that if a developer has donated to a Councillor’s campaign funds that Councillor should declare a conflict of interest and not vote on the matter. Why does the same prohibition not apply to a Minister whose party has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from a developer?”

“The only genuine solution is for the government to move urgently to implement its long-awaited promise to ban corporate political donations,” said Ms Hale.