Hypocrisy in politics is rather routine, but sometimes it is galling how blatant one party or another can be.
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State Labor fired off a media release on Monday accusing the Liberals of being silent on where most of that party's donations came from in the last financial year.
They claim, rightly, that voters have no way of knowing where most of the funds received by the governing party came from.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Of the $3.38 million the Liberals declared having received in 2018-19, only $793,076 - less than a quarter - came from identified donors, who gave more than the individual disclosure threshold of $13,800.
"Under the current law, the Tasmanian Liberals have been able to get away with hiding the identity of those who've contributed a significant proportion of donations they received," says Labor's Ella Haddad.
That's true, and it does speak to the need for reform, but we'll come back to that because it first has to be acknowledged that Labor is far from an innocent party here.
For the same period, Labor failed to disclose those behind more than 90 per cent of the funds it received.
Ms Haddad argues "Tasmania's donation laws are the worst in the country, and allow the Liberals to keep the source of some donations out of the spotlight".
Yet what is Labor's excuse for not voluntarily disclosing all donations above $1000 within 14 days of receipt, which is what it believes the law should require?
The opposition can hardly claim the high moral ground when it is not choosing to lead by example and disclose its donations.
And, of course, the reason Labor is not doing so is because it knows this will deter some donors, leaving it with even less money than the cashed-up Liberals until the law is actually changed or they follow suit.
Political donation disclosure laws should be amended in Tasmania, but such reform is also liable to be gamed by parties looking for any and all advantages.
What Labor is proposing would be acceptable to Labor, but does it go far enough? Why not real-time disclosure of donations? And what if multiple donations are being made below the disclosure threshold?