WA Labor, Liberal and political party bosses unite to demand answers from elections boss on donation reform

The bosses of WA’s four biggest political parties have joined forces in a remarkable bid to lash out at the Electoral Commission over its rollout of new donation laws. As a July 1 deadline looms, WA Labor state secretary Ellie Whiteaker, WA Liberal state director Simon Morgan, Nationals WA director Douglas Rodgers, and Greens WA director Liberty Cramer co-signed a letter to Electoral Commissioner Robert Kennedy last week, calling for an urgent meeting about the new disclosure regime. The West can reveal the letter came after consultation sessions run by a “user experience expert”, costing taxpayers $44,000, for the senior political figures included an ice-breaker session where they were asked to draw a self-portrait. “Since early this year, we have repeatedly sought guidance from the Commission on the interpretation and rollout of the new laws … To date, those questions have not been answered,” the letter reads. “The new electoral laws impose a significant additional administrative burden on political parties and will require changes to our finance systems, internal policies as well as training for candidates, staff, party members and volunteers - with no administrative funding provided to facilitate compliance.” After receiving the letter, the Electoral Commission organised a meeting with the group on Tuesday and a second meeting on Friday, but some directors reported no progress. The new laws, passed by Parliament late last year, require parties to disclose cumulative donations of more than $2600 within a week of receipt and require a new online donation declaration system run by the WA Electoral Commission. Faced with uncertainty, the development of the disclosure system is shrouded in secrecy. Political parties are nervous about the slow scale of the rollout and took up the offer to attend a meeting in April to hear more. But the meetings were design workshops, during which they were asked what the system should look like, leaving the directors concerned that it had not been designed. “The recent workshops facilitated by the Commission with an external consultant failed to provide any information about the implementation or operation of the new laws and left us with little confidence that an online disclosure system has even been created,” the letter to the Commissioner read. “Without seeing the online disclosure system being developed by the Commission, it is impossible for us to assess its interoperability with our own existing systems.” Those events started with an icebreaker, in which participants were encouraged to draw a self-portrait around a post-it note with their name on it in a bid to “get the creative juices flowing.” “Don’t worry! You don’t need to be an artist to participate, simple shapes are all that is required!,” a workshop paper reads. Under questioning from Liberal MP Tjorn Sibma in Parliament, the Electoral Commission defended the workshops. “The workshop sought to obtain feedback from existing users about their previous experience with political funding disclosures and in particular obstacles or challenges they have faced,” a response from the Commission read. “This was then translated into what users would like to see in the new system in order to overcome those previous challenges.” Further answers from the Commission stated the online system would be operational by July 1, allowing parties to meet their legislative obligations. Additional functions required during the election will be added later in the year, the Commission stated. The stoush comes as the Electoral Commission prepares to facilitate next year’s State Election, which will include new disclosure rules and a statewide Upper House election. The Commission received an additional $7 million in last week’s State Budget to run the poll on March 8 because of struggles to employ staff, misinformation about election conduct, and a competitive leasing market.