With 12 months to go until the next state election, I was proud to stand next to the Premier this week as she announced the most sweeping reforms to Queensland's electoral system in our history.
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Labor Governments in Queensland have always made elections fairer, more transparent and more just. The Palaszczuk Government has already banned political donations from property developers.
We've introduced a $1000 donation threshold for disclosure and the strongest real-time disclose system in this country.
Now, we will introduce further reforms to build community trust in our democracy and protect decision-makers from influence by vested interests.
These reforms include a cap on donations, limits on expenditure during election campaigns, and an increase in public funding.
We will prevent the wealthiest among us from donating exorbitant amounts of money by putting in place the lowest donation caps in the country. It will also avert the 'arms race' becoming too frequent with our major political parties, as they try to outspend each other on elections. Labor introduced these donation caps years ago, but they were scrapped by the LNP under Campbell Newman. This ensures a levelling playing field when it comes to our democracy.
Everyone will be covered by this donation cap - from lobbyists, big businesses, unions, community groups and individual donors.
There will be no special treatment for one side of politics over the other.
We will also increase public funding to remove the incentive for candidates and parties to seek big donations and big fundraisers. Voters don't love the idea of compensating candidates but the research shows public funding works.
Public funding will reduce undue influence on our elections and make sure your elected representatives cannot be bought.
Integrity experts have been calling on these reforms for years. Anthony Whealy from the Centre for Public Integrity welcomed our announcement, saying Queensland will now have the strongest political donations laws in the country.
The Human Rights Legal Centre said without limits on political donations politicians will respond to the "biggest bank balance, instead of those with the best ideas."
With these reforms we will rebuild faith in public institutions by making sure dark money does not wield power from behind closed doors.
Our elections need constant examination and improvement if they're going to continue working for all of us in to the future.
Those with the most money should not have the loudest voice. Our democracy belongs to all Queenslanders.
