Where is the difference between
the 500 Club, that Mr Middleton manages for WA Liberals, and the Eightbyfive
fund that benefited the NSW Liberals, or the fund that Joe Hockey is trying to
explain away today?
The Perth based 500 Club is a club that
can only be joined by invitation from a current member.
“To
become a member of The 500 Club, you need to be referred by an existing member.
This process ensures members are proactively interested in the Club’s
activities and aims. “
It takes donations from
members and then distributes them to the politicians in return for ....what?
The following are a few extracts
from Hansard that indicate some views of how the funds are used;
“Why did the proponents of the Gnarabup Beach development
donate to his campaign? Maybe the member for Vasse knows more about the issue
that the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure raised yesterday when she
pointed out that the Smiths Beach proponents were delivered a huge windfall
benefit by the Liberal Party in government after it received a donation from the
developers. If that is not improper and if it does not sniff of corruption,
what does? Does it matter?
The member for Cottesloe – he has all the answers –
should tell us about the donations to the Liberal Party’s 500 Club or is that
just a vehicle for corruption? If it is not, the Leader of the Liberal Party
should demand that the state Liberal Party reveal to the public everybody who
donates through the Liberal Party’s 500 Club. He should get it on the public record so we can all see who makes
donations. Who knows whether the 500 Club is a vehicle for corruption? No-one
will ever know because the Liberal Party will not tell anybody who these donors
are. That is what it has said.
....
I issue a challenge to the leader of the Liberal Party:
he should sack the member for Vasse. He should publicly call upon the state
Liberal Party to reveal the donors to the Liberal Party’s 500 Club. Then we can
hold it up against all the development applications and all the approvals. Then
we will know who is involved, just as we now know that the Liberal Party
received a donation from Canal Rocks Pty Ltd and made a decision that gave
tremendous benefit to the Canal Rocks developers. Canal Rocks received no
benefit from us. In fact, quite the contrary. It is funny, is it not?
.....
It would be great if the Liberal Party said, “Just to
prove all those things wrong, here are all the people who have donated to the Liberal Party’s
500 Club.” We would all see that accountability that the Liberal Party is so
proud to claim. It is not accountable; it is completely unaccountable.
23
November 2006
..........
Before
I was rudely interrupted by the dinner break, I was reflecting on my
colleagues’ commitment to the Liberal philosophies of small government and
lower taxes. In conclusion I point out that this government has comprehensively
failed in its commitment to tax reform and tax cuts. In the lead-up to the 2008
election a commitment was made to the
500 Club, in return for its $400,000 donation, to deliver $250 million in
tax cuts. When that commitment was made it was to be costed and delivered by
the end of the 2012–13 financial year. Instead of tax cuts a series of rebates
were to be delivered six years after the government was first elected in 2008.
11
June 2013”
.....
That last quote was from a Liberal member complaining that they had paid for a promise that hadn't been delivered.
Is there any difference?
Are we all comfortable with democracy for sale?
