v122 · 19 May 2026
MMP POLICY VISION & REFORM

ELECTORAL REFORM

Foreign donations structurally impossible. Real-time donation disclosure via the People's Portal. 5-year retrospective declaration amnesty, then no statute of limitations. Truth in political advertising with 48-hour AEC rulings. Federal integrity commission with coercive powers. Mandatory lobbying register. Independent AEC audit.

$0Foreign donations — structurally impossible
48 hrsAEC truth ruling — mandatory correction
5 yearsRetrospective disclosure — all hidden donations exposed
$500KMax fine for concealment — plus 5 years prison

The Problem — Money, Secrecy, No Accountability

Donations Buy Policy

No cap on donations. No real-time disclosure. Foreign-controlled entities fund campaigns. Mining industry, unions, developers — whoever gives the most gets the meeting. Australians pay with policy bought by people they will never meet. The democratic process is structurally distorted by money, and the distortion is hidden by design.

Politicians Lie — Legally

Political advertising is explicitly exempt from consumer protection laws. A company cannot make false claims about its product. A politician can say anything — including provably false claims that move votes. The voter has no protection. The candidate has no consequence. The result is the political environment Australia currently lives with.

No Integrity Commission With Teeth

ICAC equivalents exist in some states but the federal level has no permanent, fully-powered integrity commission. Lobbying registers are voluntary or poorly enforced. The revolving door between ministers and the industries they regulated spins freely. The accountability architecture at the federal level is decorative.

The MMP Solution — 10 Problems, 10 Fixes

Donations Through The Portal Only

Every donation made via the People's Portal with MyGovID. Verified identity. Foreign donations structurally impossible. Published immediately: donor name, amount, recipient, date. No cap needed — full transparency is the cap.

Real-Time Disclosure

Donation published the moment it is made. AEC holds overnight for clearing; recipient receives next business day. No more annual disclosure. No more hiding $100,000 donations for 18 months. The public sees it in real time.

Foreign Donations Banned

Foreign-controlled entity making a donation treated as a foreign donation: banned. MyGovID verifies Australian citizenship or permanent residency. Structurally impossible, not just prohibited. The compliance burden is on the platform, not on the AEC chasing offenders after the fact.

Retrospective 5-Year Declaration

90-day amnesty: all parties, unions, industry bodies declare every donation and ad spend from the past 5 years. Come clean — no prosecution. After the window: no amnesty, no statute of limitations. Prosecutions forever. The historical record cleaned up by choice or by force.

Truth In Political Advertising

Same standard as commercial advertising. AEC truth unit rules within 48 hours. Mandatory correction equal in size to the original. Deliberate falsehood: $500K civil remedy. Systematic falsehoods: criminal liability. The political ad becomes a regulated product like every other paid claim.

Federal Integrity Commission

A permanent federal ICAC with genuine investigative powers — not a toothless advisory body. Own-motion investigations. Public hearings. Findings published. Minister cannot dismiss commissioners. Retrospective jurisdiction. The federal level finally gets the accountability architecture the states have had for decades.

Mandatory Lobbying Register

Every meeting between a lobbyist and a minister or senior public servant registered within 24 hours. Published in real time. Revolving door: 5-year ban on ministers lobbying their former department. No exceptions. The lobbying industry stays — but it operates in daylight.

Social Media Ad Transparency

All platforms report political advertising spend to the AEC portal in real time as a condition of operating in Australia. Non-compliance: $50M fine. Dark ads and micro-targeting of false information: prohibited. The democratic process cannot be auctioned in a marketplace nobody can see.

Independent AEC Integrity Audit

The AEC has never been independently audited. As postal voting has grown from 5% to over 20% of all votes, MMP commissions a full independent audit. Results published. Any systemic issues remedied before the next election. Trust in the electoral process is the foundation of everything else — and trust is maintained by audit, not by assertion.

Fixed 4-Year Terms

Australia's three-year federal cycle locks the country into permanent campaigning. Fixed four-year terms with simultaneous House and half-Senate elections give government time to legislate, time to implement, and time to be judged on results. The reform requires a constitutional referendum; MMP commits to running it.

Current vs MMP — Electoral Integrity

Current — Bought And Sold MMP — Sunlight By Design
No real-time donation disclosure. $100K donations hidden for 18 months.Every donation via People's Portal. Published immediately. Verified identity.
Foreign-controlled entities donate freely through shell structures.MyGovID verifies citizenship/residency. Foreign donations structurally impossible.
Political ads exempt from truth-in-advertising law.Same standard as commercial ads. 48-hour AEC ruling. $500K civil remedy.
No federal ICAC with coercive powers.Federal integrity commission. Own-motion. Public hearings. Retrospective.
Lobbying register voluntary or weak. Revolving door wide open.Every lobbyist-minister meeting registered in 24 hrs. 5-year revolving door ban.
Dark social media ads. Micro-targeted falsehoods.All platforms report ad spend in real time. Dark ads prohibited. $50M fine.
AEC never independently audited as postal voting grew to 20%+.Independent audit commissioned. Results published. Issues remedied.
Original One-Pager (PDF)

MMP Electoral Reform

v1 · 2 pages · A4
Pinned Memos

Discussion & Evidence

No memos pinned to this policy yet. When an MMP memo on this topic is published, it will appear here with a short summary. The full memo index is at moralmajority.com.au/memos.html.