Mafia political donation scandal - Abbott and Shorten must act

Greens democracy spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon has urged the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition to move quickly to clean up electoral funding laws following the reports linking major political fund raising with a campaign to allow a known mafia figure to stay in Australia.

"Prime Minister Tony Abbott and opposition leader Bill Shorten can't expect this scandal to blow over. They need to recognise how discredited political fund raising activities are," Senator Rhiannon said.

"The failure of our two senior political leaders to act on electoral funding reforms that would close the door on illegal activities like the mafia linked political donation scandal is a bad look for both Liberal and Labor.

"There is already deep public cynicism about why parties and MPs accept large political donations. Add mafia money into this long running sore on Australian politics and this reflects badly on the Liberal and Labor parties.

"With Geoffrey Watson SC, the ICAC counsel assisting, and even former Millennium Forum and federal Liberal Party treasurer Michael Yabsley both calling for electoral funding reforms the pressure is on all political parties to commit to long overdue clean up.

""The Howard government's decision to raise the political donation disclosure level to $10,000 was shocking and should be reversed. But this is not just an issue of disclosing where the money comes from.

"The reforms need to give priority to a ban on corporate political donations, tight caps on individual donations and limits on election expenditure.

"Electoral funding law reforms are urgently needed," Senator Rhiannon said.

Contact - Brami Jegan 0487350880