Labor has struck an eleventh-hour deal with the Coalition to water down its election funding bill.
Under the deal, the maximum amount an individual donor can give to a candidate or a political party will be $50,000 instead of $20,000 as Labor had proposed.
State and territory branches of parties count separately, meaning the cap is effectively $450,000 for parties with a full federal structure like Labor, the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens.
The threshold above which donations must be disclosed will be $5,000 instead of $1,000. This is lower than the current threshold of $16,900.
The major parties were close to striking a deal along similar lines in December, but it fell apart at the last minute over Labor’s attempt to amend its own bill to change the rules for unions and business groups.
The draft bill would have capped at $20,000 the amount peak bodies such as the ACTU, Business Council and Minerals Council could take from their member organisations for their own national political campaigns, which would have severely constrained their current practice. An amendment agreed as part of the deal will instead let them collect $250,000 in affiliate fees from each member.
The national party spending cap of $90 million will be unchanged, so too the $800,000 cap for each candidate.
The crossbench, who had received assurances Labor was open to dealing with them on the transparency elements of the bill, said the deal was a “fix”.
Greens Senator Larissa Waters said the major parties were “agreeing on rigging the system to lock out their competitors … From the outset, the lack of genuine engagement with the Greens and the crossbench indicated the government was always seeking a stitch up”.
Independent MP Kate Chaney said “the manner in which it’s been pushed through is a good indication of the fact that the major parties just do not want any scrutiny”.
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