Joo-Cheong Tham

How democratic is the way in which political parties are funded? This report identifies two central problems: a lack of transparency around the way parties are funded and the way in which their money is spent; and an inequality in the system that favours the Coalition and ALP at the expense of the minor parties

This is the draft version of a new report prepared by Sally Young and Joo-Cheong Tham, providing evidence of systemic problems with the current system of political finance in Australia, particularly relating to inequality of funding and access, secrecy and perceptions of corruption

Joo-Cheong Tham argues that recent government proposals to increase the threshold for disclosing the identity of political donors, and to raise the ceiling for tax-deductibility, would advantage wealthy political donors and further increase their political access vis à vis the less well off, reducing political equality