Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s fresh political donation laws leave crossbenchers fuming

While the Prime Minister was using one hand to feed the independent crossbenchers who could be crucial in returning him to the Lodge at his residence, the metaphorical other hand was busy taking — in a move that could come back to bite him.

Less than 24 hours after they shared cocktail food and reflected on a productive and respectful working relationship with Anthony Albanese, crossbenchers were left fuming that Labor had stitched up a “dirty deal” with the Coalition on electoral reforms.

In the biggest shake-up of political financing in decades, Special Minister for State Don Farrell compromised on raising the disclosure threshold to $5000, and increasing donation caps to $50,000.

The legislation, which includes real-time disclosures on donations, is set to pass the Senate on Wednesday night.

Labor will claim it as a win for keeping “big money out of politics”, and it could wind up being one of the final jewels in Anthony Albanese’s first-term crown given an election is due within the next three months.

But in freezing out the crossbench, he’s risked alienating the very group who could become his kingmakers if the polls are correct and he winds up in minority Government.

The biggest concern for crossbenchers is the $800,000 candidate spending cap per electorate, while the parties will have a national ceiling of $90m.

Given a wave of teal independents ousted Liberal MPs at the last two elections by raising between $1m and $2m apiece, irate crossbenchers say that will overwhelmingly disadvantage them.

Independent senator David Pocock — who the Government have often had to rely on in this term of Parliament — said the deal was a blatant display of self-interest.

“We were promised so much by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the election of a new way of doing politics differently, but when it comes to the major parties: it’s self interest first, second and third,” he said.

“They’re here to make sure that they stay in power, and they will do whatever it takes including by disrespecting all Australians by trying to cut out competition... I find it so astounding and so disappointing.”

About one third of the country voted for a minor party or independent at the last election, and the crossbench say voters should be concerned - and have warned the major parties they will long remember this if either leader comes to them looking for support.

“I absolutely think the major parties are terrified of what they’re seeing. They are seeing that neither of them is offering the sort of leadership that Australians want, and they’re seeing their share of vote decline,” Curtin MP Kate Chaney said.

“Making sure that there is transparency and accountability in our democracy is a priority for me, and a factor that would be important to me in deciding who I could work with.”

Two-term Warringah MP Zali Steggall said a key issue for her would be who she can “trust to act in good faith”.

“The latest grubby deal reached by Don Farrell with the Coalition on electoral reform to lock out competition, clearly with the support of the Prime Minister, will be part of my considerations,” she told The Nightly.

Senator Farrell had sealed the deal in seperate meetings with Mr Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on Tuesday, around the same time the independents were summoned to the PM’s residence for a sundowner to celebrate a respectful working relationship in this term of Parliament.

“We may not agree on much, but where we disagree we have done that respectfully and we’ve gotten good outcomes for Australia,” North Sydney MP Kylea Tink had told the Nightly this morning.

That goodwill had dissipated by Wednesday afternoon.

Fowler MP Dai Le said she was “cynical” about the timing, while Ms Chaney thinks the timing is more a “coincidence”.,

Whichever end of the spectrum the crossbench sits on, their biggest gripe is that they had been frozen out.

“No matter where we were last night, we were not going to be in the room with the two major parties who were stitching up this deal, getting over their many differences to manage to find some common ground where they have a common interest,” Ms Chaney said.

She said the deal was offensive to the increasing group of people voting outside of the two party system.

“Instead of trying to earn back the trust of voters, the major parties have now announced they have teamed up to change the rules around elections. They’re calling it ‘electoral reform’, but they are passing legislation to lock out future independent competition and protect their dominance in Parliament,” she said.

“They don’t agree on much, but unsurprisingly they can agree on a deal to stop the crossbench from expanding because they know that an expanded crossbench will continue to work tirelessly hold them to account. “

The three years of goodwill the PM had built with the crossbenchers may have been celebrated at the Lodge, but a day is a long time in politics.