Who pays the piper?

It is concerning, however, that these events have laid out a pattern for anyone to systematically dupe both the electoral laws and the Australian people.

It appears, following the model set out by the Exclusive Brethren (I beg your pardon, I mean, of course, by Willmac Enterprises) that any group which wishes to, can hide its responsibility for electoral comment by forming a company for that precise purpose, and interposing that company between the true donors and the electoral disclosure system.

Let us imagine for a moment, that we have formed a hypothetical group devoted to something completely unsupportable - say, a group devoted to reasserting the original White Australia policy. We have $200,000 at our disposal. All we need do is create a company with an appropriately benign name and a single director; put our $200,000 into the company's resources, then allow the company to spend it as it will. The company puts in a third-party return to the AEC, and the true donors will forever remain unknown.

A less outrageous example: currently, donations to political parties which exceed $10,000 in value must be declared. This time, let's set up our company and allow major donors to provide their money to the company. The company, in turn, makes and declares a massive donation to a major political party. As far as the AEC is concerned, all is well. But as far as the electorate is concerned, who is paying the piper? Who is calling the tune to which we all must eventually dance?

Under the circumstances, the election to be called later this year may well be free, and may well be fair, but is very unlikely to be transparent.