Combined with unfair changes to electoral laws coming into force next year, these threaten to make Australian elections less competitive than ever.
Key findings include:
- Each election cycle, parliamentarians can receive at least $400,000 for office expenses, including for communications and constituent outreach, $351,000 for travel and transport, and at least $2.4 million for staff salaries and allowances, including their own annual wages starting at $234,000.
- At the last federal election, only 16 re-contesting MPs were defeated (12% of all recontesting MPs).
- During the current election cycle, government MPs and Senators will be eligible for collective entitlements worth at least $430 million, and opposition MPs and Senators $241 million.
- Meanwhile, collective entitlement eligibility for minor party and independent MPs and Senators will amount to $111 million.
"While elected representatives should be adequately resourced to do their jobs, it's important to ensure a fair fight between incumbents and challengers come election time," said Bill Browne, Director of The Australia Institute's Democracy and Accountability Program.
"Competition is always healthy for democracy, and we cannot afford to make it even more difficult for new entrants to challenge incumbents.
"Sitting parliamentarians rarely lose elections. This is at least in part because of the enormous financial advantages of incumbency, including offices, staff, travel and communications budgets.
"Earlier this year, the major parties united to rush through changes to Australian democracy and increase taxpayer funding of political parties by tens of millions of dollars. A parliamentary inquiry would allow these laws to be tested for fairness, and reformed where needed."
