The Queensland Greens have replied to our request for commitments to accountability and integrity measures prior to the Queensland election. The original text of the letter from Andrew Bartlett, the convenor of the Queensland Greens can be found here.
Their response covers both general principles of accountability and integrity, and our specific inquiries.
The general principles they nominated were to
- commit to The Fitzgerald Governance Principles
- govern “for the peace, welfare and good government of the state”
- “make all decisions and take all actions in public office, including the making of public appointments in the public interest without regard to personal, party political or other immaterial considerations”
- to make appointments to public office “on merit according to transparent criteria”
- not to provide “any person or corporation undue or special access or influence”
- “and undertake to promptly and accurately inform the public of our reasons for all significant or potentially controversial decisions and actions related to our Parliamentary activities”
1. Crime and Misconduct Commission
“Queensland Greens support the reversing of all the changes made by the current Queensland Government to the former Crime and Misconduct Commission”.
2. Political donations
They “agree that there needs to be substantial reform made to Queensland’s electoral laws to constrain donations to political parties”, including
- Bans on political donations from for-profit corporations and place caps on individual political donations.
- Prompt, comprehensive public disclosure of all political donations within 30 days.
- Ending the revolving door between politics and big business, by prohibiting Ministers from working in a role which exploits their special knowledge or connections gained as a Minister.
- Caps on electoral expenditure by parties and candidates and strict limits on third party expenditure.
- Public funding for political parties and independent candidates to reduce corporate influence on political decisions.
3. Right to Information
They “support further strengthening the state’s Right to Information legislation”.
Further information
In addition, they alert us to the detail of the reforms they propose on their website;
QLD Greens state policy on democracy:
http://qld.greens.org.au/policies/qld/democracy
Greens national initiative on accountability and integrity in government:
http://greens.org.au/initiatives/vic/transparency-integrity-and-accountability
Greens plan from the Victorian Greens for stronger misconduct laws against corrupt politicians:
http://greens.org.au/serious_misconduct_laws
Greens national policy on constitutional reform and democracy:
http://greens.org.au/policies/constitutional-reform-and-democracy