Whither Democracy? Political donations triple as AEC prepares 2021 data drop

Money in politics; “donations” from large corporations and billionaires are on the rise. And when the yearly data from the AEC is released in the morning, it will almost certainly show Australia hard on the heels of the US, where true reform in the public interest is so routinely impeded by wealthy private interests. 

“Campaign finance”, as they call it in America, doubled in the 2020 Election, that is, private money in politics doubled from the time Donald Trump won the election in 2016. Here in Australia, donations to the two major parties tripled between the 2016 and 2019 elections.

Labor raked in a little more than the Coalition. This may come down to flawed data, the fact that Labor’s donations disclosure is better than…