Selling Out: How powerful industries corrupt our democracy
REPORT | Read the report
Exposing corporate influence on our democracy
In Australia, corporate influence over our politicians is threatening our democracy. What is considered illegal and corrupt influence overseas is business as usual in Canberra.
Selling Out: How powerful industries corrupt our democracy, a new report from the Human Rights Law Centre exposes how the powerful fossil fuels, gambling and tobacco industries are taking advantage of Australia’s weak integrity laws and distorting our democratic processes to put their profits ahead of our wellbeing.
The report outlines how current laws and regulations allow corporations to put their profits ahead of the wellbeing of our communities. Australian laws permit big industry to contribute millions to the major political parties’ election campaigns. These donations act as an insurance policy against strong regulation.
As well as favourable treatment, corporate donations buy access to politicians that ordinary people would never get. To increase their access to power, corporations hire ex-politicians and advisors. When these methods fail to secure the desired outcome, these industries use their vast wealth to fund punishing multi-million-dollar attack campaigns.
The political control wielded by these industries is holding back stronger regulation to protect us from their harmful practises. This report details the human cost of this form of legalised corruption, from lives destroyed by addiction to whole communities lost to climate-change induced natural disasters, and provides clear solutions to stop the cycle of corporate influence in our politics.
Image credit: Mick Tsikas, AAP
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This report was written by Alice Drury who works in the Democratic Freedoms team at the Human Rights Law Centre. You can learn more about the team's work here.