Regulation of how and by whom lobbying is conducted is critical to ensure public policy is serving the public,not a vested,interest.
The politicisation of integrity processes means Victorians have no real confidence that power is being exercised in their interest.
This call for urgent reform from the state’s top integrity agencies presents an opportunity to bolster the Victorian integrity framework more broadly.
The appointment of a planning minister whose brother is a lobbyist for major developers has raised concerns about potential conflict.
In the lead-up to the federal election,one key measure of the robustness of contenders’ integrity platforms is their commitment to serious political finance reform.
Government pork-barrelling has become a serious problem which needs to be fixed.
What has been achieved is laudable and there are many dimensions of the legislation that should be adopted in other jurisdictions in Australia and abroad.
Despite the fact that the bill falls short of being an exemplar,it improves on current arrangements in respect of scrutiny and oversight.
While campaign spending remains uncapped,parties and candidates will be tempted to chase donations that may have strings attached