Australia: GILMOUR: Donation Ban Smoke and Mirrors

Source from:  examiner.com.au  11/20/2012

TASMANIA'S Legislative Council has finally restored this state to democratic respectability.

Its decision on Thursday to reject a politically motivated Labor-Green piece of legislation to ban political donations from tobacco companies was both sound and refreshingly logical.

This was not an argument about the merits of smoking. Nobody, not even smokers, can defend this killer habit.

However, selling tobacco products is legal in Australia so, while this is the case, tobacco companies are legally entitled to support a political party of their choice.

This is a basic tenet of democracy and the Legislative Council fortunately saw through the state government's smoke screen 13 votes to one.

Labor and the Greens are perfectly entitled to embarrass the Liberals over the $38,000 they accepted from tobacco companies, but trying to ban it for political advantage was an unworthy waste of time for our parliament.

The Liberals will have to electorally reconcile accepting these donations, and good luck with that, but Labor and the Greens are kidding everybody if they think a ban will stop one person smoking.

Surely, if you want to set a good example and smoking is such a terrible thing, then ban it altogether.

Refuse the taxes and save lives.

If you extend the logic of Ms Giddings and Mr McKim and their followers, how can you possible allow wine or spirit merchants to donate, or any pub, club or casino that has a poker machine?

As a society we accept smoking, drinking and gambling as an adult right in Australia.

Yes, a certain percentage of people fall through the cracks with addictions in those areas, but we still don't ban them.

Should forest protesters who are repeatedly arrested for trespassing be allowed to donate to the Greens?

Should some of the criminally mired unions be able to donate to Labor?

The more you think about it the more stupid the government's argument sounds. But then came the dummy spit from Mr McKim.

Hot on the heels of losing his same-sex marriage legislation, he then accused the Legislative Council of "being played like a fiddle by the Liberals".

Sour politics indeed.

The critical aspect to this argument is disclosure and this is where the Greens actually have it right.

All political donations should be declared immediately and should be logged and released publicly on an independent register which is freely available.

Currently it can take more than six months for this information to surface.

With prompt and transparent disclosure comes accountability.

Interestingly, Attorney General Brian Wightman is committed to electoral reform and better disclosure laws on donations - this is exactly what parliament should have been debating this week.

•Just for the record, this columnist has never been a smoker and this newspaper, by law, cannot accept tobacco advertisements. Enditem