Independents To Force Action On Gambling, Lobbying Laws

Independents are pushing hot-button problems such as prohibiting gambling ads, opening ministerial journals to the public and the impact of political lobbyists.


Crossbenchers have laid out a list of key top priorities if they're re-elected into a hung parliament, telling a transparency forum they'll force the federal government to act on the largely unblemished issues.


Reforming lobbying, enabling the national anti-corruption commission to hold public hearings, developing a whistleblower security authority and having truth in political advertising laws are amongst the targets for crossbench MPs.


This consisted of Allegra Spender, Zali Steggall, Monique Ryan, Andrew Wilkie, Kate Chaney and Senator David Pocock.


Ms Steggall indicated customer defenses against misleading and deceptive advertisements, comparing it with no truth in political marketing laws.


"It's like we do not value our ballot rights the very same method as we value our consumer rights," she said.


Senator Pocock called lobbying laws "an outright joke", saying 80 per cent of lobbyists weren't covered by the code of conduct and there were no real charges for misconduct.


The senator and Dr Ryan have actually pressed in parliament for laws that would open ministerial journals so the general public can discover ministers meeting lobbyists.


Ms Spender likewise named a total ban on betting ads after Labor shelved strategies to do something about it.


"This is a contest in between beneficial interests who are winning to date, versus community interests who understand that this needs to be prohibited and I will defend that," she stated.


Ms Spender is likewise combating the Australian Electoral Commission for more transparency over its findings that a person person was accountable for sending some 47,000 unauthorised pamphlets targeting her in her electorate of Wentworth.


The commission said the person acted alone, had no link to a political celebration or candidates objecting to the seat and it was considering whether to promote civil charges for breaking electoral law after the May 3 election.


Ms Spender expressed concern about keeping the identity hidden, asking "how can voters think about the source if the AEC will not recognize that source", in referral to the laws needing authorisation for openness purposes.