The Socialist Alliance released this statement on August 29.
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"The Independent Commission Against Corruption's uncovering of corrupt political dealings between corporations and the two major parties in NSW shouldn't come as a surprise,” said Susan Price on August 29.
Price is standing as a candidate for the Socialist Alliance in the new seat of Summer Hill on a platform of “People before Profit — NSW is not for sale”.
"We need to put an end to electoral systems which are rigged by a permanent wealth gerrymander,” she said. “We need to end the system whereby corporate donations pay for much of the election campaigns of the major parties.
"We need to end the dependence on multi-million dollar corporate advertising campaigns.
"The NSW electoral commission must be obliged to hold community stalls to explain the voting system and issue information on all parties.
"It should be charged with ensuring that the election platforms of all parties and candidates should be equally distributed. This would remove the incentive for private funding.
"For truly democratic elections we would need to end the economic inequality of the class system.
"As we work towards that, we have to create new forms of popular power and representation — superior models which would involve more people in the daily decisions affecting their lives.
"In the interim, we don't believe that banning political donations is a good or workable solution. Corporations will always find a way around bans.
"That approach also unfairly targets unions, and other working-class organisations, which have a right to discuss and decide to support a candidate or party they trust.”
Socialist Alliance policy is for all elected candidates to pledge to take no more than an average workers’ wage.
[Susan Price is an active unionist, has lived in Sydney’s inner-west since 1999, and is the national co-convener of the Socialist Alliance.]