Independents To Force Action On Gambling, Lobbying Laws

Independents are pushing hot-button concerns such as banning gambling advertisements, opening ministerial diaries to the public and suppressing the influence of political lobbyists.


Crossbenchers have actually outlined a list of crucial top priorities if they're re-elected into a hung parliament, telling an openness online forum they'll force the federal government to act upon the mainly untouched problems.


Reforming lobbying, enabling the nationwide anti-corruption commission to hold public hearings, creating a whistleblower defense authority and having fact in political marketing laws are amongst the targets for crossbench MPs.


This included Allegra Spender, Zali Steggall, Monique Ryan, Andrew Wilkie, Kate Chaney and Senator David Pocock.


Ms Steggall pointed to customer protections versus misleading and deceptive ads, comparing it without any truth in political advertising laws.


"It's like we do not value our voting rights the same way as we value our consumer rights," she said.


Senator Pocock called lobbying laws "an outright joke", stating 80 per cent of lobbyists weren't covered by the code of conduct and there were no genuine penalties for misbehavior.


The senator and Dr Ryan have pushed in parliament for laws that would open ministerial journals so the general public can discover ministers meeting lobbyists.


Ms Spender likewise named an overall ban on betting ads after Labor shelved strategies to act.


"This is a contest between vested interests who are winning to date, versus community interests who understand that this needs to be prohibited and I will defend that," she said.


Ms Spender is likewise fighting the Australian Electoral Commission for more transparency over its findings that one individual was accountable for sending some 47,000 unauthorised pamphlets targeting her in her electorate of Wentworth.


The commission stated the person acted alone, had no link to a political party or candidates objecting to the seat and it was thinking about whether to press for civil charges for breaking electoral law after the May 3 election.


Ms Spender expressed issue about keeping the identity concealed, asking "how can citizens consider the source if the AEC will not identify that source", in to the laws needing authorisation for openness functions.