Independents To Force Action On Gambling, Lobbying Laws

Independents are pushing hot-button concerns such as prohibiting gambling ads, opening ministerial journals to the general public and suppressing the impact of political lobbyists.


Crossbenchers have described a list of key priorities if they're re-elected into a hung parliament, informing a transparency online forum they'll require the government to act upon the largely untouched issues.


Reforming lobbying, allowing the nationwide anti-corruption commission to hold public hearings, creating a whistleblower defense authority and having reality in laws are among 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 against deceptive and misleading ads, comparing it with no reality in political advertising laws.


"It resembles we don't value our ballot rights the exact same method as we value our consumer rights," she said.


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


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


Ms Spender likewise named an overall restriction on gambling advertisements after Labor shelved strategies to do something about it.


"This is a contest between beneficial interests who are winning to date, versus community interests who understand that this needs to be banned and I will combat for that," she said.


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


The commission said the individual acted alone, had no link to a political celebration or prospects contesting the seat and it was considering whether to promote civil charges for breaking electoral law after the May 3 election.


Ms Spender expressed concern about keeping the identity hidden, asking "how can voters think about the source if the AEC will not determine that source", in referral to the laws needing authorisation for openness purposes.