ACE Electoral Knowledge Network
About the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network
The ACE website is an online knowledge repository that provides comprehensive information and customised advice on electoral processes. The website contains in-depth articles, global statistics and data, an Encyclopaedia of Elections, information on electoral assistance, observation and professional development, region- and country-specific resources, daily electoral news, an election calendar, quizzes, expert networks and much, much more. The ACE website is freely accessible to all and the number of visitors is constantly growing – as of January 2010 the website has more than 1,2 million unique visitors per year.
Entry on Political Advertising and Campaign Spending Limits here
A history of the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Political Donations and Other Measures) Bill 2008
(From the Parliamentary Library)
The main purpose of the Bill is to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (the Act) so as to:
- reduce the donations disclosure threshold from $10 900 (current rate, CPI-indexed) to $1000 and remove CPI indexation
- prohibit foreign and anonymous donations to registered political parties, candidates and members of Senate groups and also prevent the use of foreign and anonymous donations for political expenditure
- limit the potential for ‘donation splitting’
- introduce a claims system for electoral funding and tie funding to electoral expenditure
- introduce a biannual disclosure framework in place of annual returns and reduce timeframes for election returns, and
- introduce new offences and increase penalties for a range of existing offences.
Australian Government: Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Lobbyists Register and Code of Conduct
In 2008 the Australian Government introduced a Lobbying Code of Conduct and established a Register of Lobbyists to ensure that contact between lobbyists and Commonwealth Government representatives is conducted in accordance with public expectations of transparency, integrity and honesty.
Discussion Paper
Possible Reforms to Lobbying Code of Conduct and the Register of Lobbyists
Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada
Lobbying Act, Regulations and Code of Conduct
Legislative and Regulatory Changes
April 30, 2008,
An example of what can be done.
Blagojevich and Legal Bribery
By Scott Turow
Published: New York Times, August 17, 2010
This article reveals the mess the USA campaign financing system has become, in light of recent Supreme Court jurisprudence that unrestricted political spending deserves protection as free speech.
PoliticalSheepDog
How to use the market to reduce corruption by lobbying
From the website
PoliticalSheepdog may drastically reduce corruption of legislatures, because, if citizens can make fair profits stopping corruption, corruption will be difficult and risky. To determine fair profits, the government needs a market and PoliticalSheepdog is the only market for public policy. PoliticalSheepdog can also provide constituents with clean profit incentives to contribute to political campaigns of candidates. It can open the legislative process to the best and most creative minds, instead of relying solely on politicians, think tanks and special interest groups. It can create a multi-billion dollar industry to supply jobs, business opportunities, and better government. PoliticalSheepdog is necessary, because it can apply market discipline to check and balance legislative excesses from our current political dynamic, which is irresponsible and may bankrupt the United States. The current dynamic is also impotent to solve some of our most intransigent problems like the prevention of illegal drugs, Katrina like disasters, or deficit spending, which PoliticalSheepdog.com can provide the incentives to solve. Finally, everyone wins.
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In its simplest description, a constituent goes to the PoliticalSheepdog.com website and registers for free. The constituent chooses from legislation associated with auctions on the PoliticalSheepdog.com website with a click of the mouse. Then, he or she bids for the amount of money that he or she desires in payment for their services as a constituent lobbyist. Later, the constituent lobbies their legislator for 5 to 15 minutes on a piece of legislation. If the legislation is passed into law and the constituent places a winning bid, then the government will pay for their lobbying services.
More here
Political donations and electoral finance
NSW Parliamentary Library and Research Service
04 March 2010
This paper reviews the current state of play in NSW with respect to the public and private funding of political parties and examines the possibility of instituting bans or caps on political donations and/or campaign expenditure. The paper also builds on the issues considered in the earlier publication, Political Donations Law Update (PDF)
See also Australian Policy Online
LobbyLens
A geospatial visualisation of lobby networks
LobbyLens correlates data about Federal Government business. It shows the connections between government contracts, business details, politician responsiblities, lobbyists, clients of lobbyists and the location of these entities.
LobbyLens was developed at the Australian Government 2.0 hackday GovHack and judged the Best in Show. It went on to win 3rd place (Notable Mashing Achievements category) in the MashupAustralia competition
LobbyLens Network Graph of lobby networks
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