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A good piece Rachel. Most of the Federal Independents were elected using large campaign expenditure war chests, including some very large donations - so reform may not be in their interests. In any event, the reality is that Independents do not have real influence for change unless they hold the balance of power. NSW has a reasonably good (but far from perfect) regulatory model, with strict campaign expenditure and annual donation limits. As a NSW Liberal Party MP, I delivered a paper to the Australasian Study of Parliament Group in April calling for further reforms, ideally nationally, following citizen jury deliberation. The paper also addresses the constitutional issue around freedom of political expression, which might be best addressed through an opt-in model. I agree that the subject involves values and value systems. To effect underlying public sentiment, real leadership needs to be shown by the leaders of mainstream political parties, as they mainly set the rules.

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