Political donations !

There is one word that comes to the mind of many people when they hear " political donations " mentioned. That word is " bribery ! "

The two main political parties are lamenting a sharp drop in political donations from developers since the furore over money changing hands for building approvals in a recent Wollongong council fiasco.

Now that new laws require developers to list any political donations they may have made when submitting plans for a development project, giving money to politicians and their parties has suddenly gone out of fashion.

The whole purpose of a political party was to publish an agenda and invite members of the public to support those objectives by way of funding the party and voting for it at elections. If kept within that framework, politics would be both clean and fair.

It is said that money is the root of all evil, and it didn't take long for politics to stray into schemes where the promise of gain by way of political decisions could be enhanced by financial support of the party in power, with donations to the party in opposition as an each way bet.

Then there is the anomaly of the trade union movement. Many are forced to join a union because the " no ticket - no job " rule is still illegally enforced.

The union movement supports just one party - and the money extracted from union members by way of dues and levies takes no consideration of the political views of those individual members.

It is galling to some who hold a belief that well intentioned independents are preferable to party hacks toeing the party line. Their money - without their consent - is being used to keep those " time servers " in safe seats - in almost perpetuity.

From time to time the funding of political parties is touted for reform, but in reality very little changes - nor can we expect that to happen in the foreseeable future.

The people who make the laws will always be reluctant to change a system that keeps them in power. After all, the first law of politics is to be certain of retaining power by whatever means necessary - and in that context fairness and " within the law " have little meaning !

The more things change - the more they stay the same !