With the threshold for the disclosure of political donations set to hit $13,000 from 1 July the Greens plan to step up their campaign for greater transparency for donations to political parties, Greens democracy spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon said.

"The increase in the disclosure threshold to $13,000 makes a farce of the Abbott government's stated commitment to transparency," Senator Rhiannon said.

"The Prime Minister's 2013 election platform commited to ‘restore accountability and improve transparency measures to be more accountable to you'.

Senator RHIANNON: Mr Medcraft, in your opening statement you spoke very extensively and strongly about the need to change the culture. In this context, can you update the committee on ASIC's work to strengthen whistleblower protection in the private sector?

Mr Medcraft : We can certainly do that.

The Australian Greens are backing the NSW auditor-general's call for Wollongong University to ban political donations and are asking for this to be implemented at a state and federal government level.

"The newly released NSW auditor-general's report has put Wollongong University's political donations back under the spotlight," Greens higher education spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon said.

The Australian Greens are calling on state and federal governments to immediately move to prohibit universities from making political donations in response to the newly released NSW auditor-general's report which states that 30 per cent of universities in the state have made donations to political parties since 2008.

CHAIR: Senator Rhiannon.
Senator RHIANNON: Professor McMillan, why do you work at home? Were you refused an office in Canberra?

Senator RHIANNON: This is question reference number F77. I have put some questions in on notice about multiple voting, and in response to those questions you sent your submission to JSCEM about the matter, but there were two questions that you said were not applicable in answering, but I actually could not find answers to them when I looked at the submission. They were: 'If you use software, does it incorporate algorithms?' and 'Are the set of instructions for any algorithms used determined by AEC staff?' I could not find any reference to that in the report.

Australian Greens spokesperson for democracy Senator Lee Rhiannon today called for a strengthening of the lobbyist code of conduct following revelations the coal seam gas industry has hired numerous former senior politicians.

"The fact that former senior Cabinet Ministers Greg Combet, Craig Emerson and Martin Ferguson, along with former Deputy Prime Ministers John Anderson and Mark Vaile, are now shills for the coal seam gas industry shows the explicit links between Labor, the Coalition and big mining," Senator Rhiannon said.

Australian Greens spokesperson for democracy Senator Lee Rhiannon has today affirmed her party's support for the abolition of group voting tickets in the Senate that allow political parties to control voter's preferences.

"The current Senate voting system does not allow voters to control their preferences - instead it gives that power over entirely to political parties," Senator Rhiannon said.

"This creates an incentive for backroom operators to create ‘front parties' in order to harvest voter's preferences without their knowledge and support.

Commenting on a Sydney Morning Herald report (http://tinyurl.com/p4fvyt5) that suggests the Greens are split on the question of Senate voting reform and would back a "minimum vote threshold", Greens democracy spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon said:

"The only thing made clear in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald story is the fact that Mr Aston's unnamed source is wildly disconnected from Greens members and MPs.