party_pants said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

party_pants said:

I am happy enough for individual voters to make personal donations, based upon their firmly held convictions. Environmentalist, for example, should allowed to donate to the Green Party to get some policy implemented that they both care about.

my rule would be that only individuals enrolled to vote in that jurisdiction should be allowed to make donations. No companies or other incorporated bodies.

This of course rules out trade unions and employer associations, so it has Buckley’s chance of getting implemented.

If unions and business groups, or any organisation were banned from giving money directly to political parties which they then use to find advertising etc, the banned entities would just spend their own money on political ads advocating for candidates and/or parties so it wouldn’t really achieve much.

You could have all sorts of fun with making rules and regulations about that. Disclosure requirements, black-out periods, non-specific endorsement of particular candidates or parties.. etc.

But I do wonder if an advertisement by an employer group or union with their “Authorised by …” spiel at the end would have the same impact as an ad directly from a party or candidate.

The notoriously bolshie Firefighter union in Victoria has ran ads at the last few state elections when even the Socialist Left dominated state government wasn’t meeting their whims. I don’t know if they achieved much but it probably made them happy for the effort.