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Political donations

15 Nov 2016

Q. Would you support or oppose introducing the following requirement concerning political donation?

  Total support Total oppose   Strongly support Support Oppose Strongly oppose Don’t know
All politicians to publicly disclose meetings with representatives of companies, donors or unions 77% 6% 41% 36% 4% 2% 17%
Political donations to be reported immediately by political parties, compared to annual reports at the moment 73% 6% 37% 36% 5% 1% 21%
A ban on foreign donations 66% 12% 40% 26% 9% 3% 23%
A cap on donations of $5000 61% 13% 27% 34% 10% 3% 26%
A ban on political donations by companies and unions 59% 16% 29% 30% 14% 2% 26%
All donations banned and all political party spending to be taxpayer funded 25% 49%   11% 14% 24% 25% 26%

 

Support by party preference Total support   Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens Vote other
All politicians to publicly disclose meetings with representatives of companies, donors or unions 77% 77% 80% 84% 88%
Political donations to be reported immediately by political parties, compared to annual reports at the moment 73% 72% 73% 84% 88%
A ban on foreign donations 66% 61% 70% 70% 83%
A cap on donations of $5000 61% 59% 64% 69% 73%
A ban on political donations by companies and unions 59% 53% 64% 64% 75%
All donations banned and all political party spending to be taxpayer funded 25%   25% 31% 27% 26%

There was majority support for all listed reforms except taxpayer funding for political parties (25% support/49% oppose).

There was particularly strong support for public disclosure of meetings (77%) and immediate reporting of donations (73%).

64% of Liberal/National voters supported a ban on donations from companies and unions compared to 53% of Labor voters. Labor voters were a little less supportive than Liberal/National voters of all reforms listed.

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