Public financing of election campaigns in Australia - a solution or a problem?

Deposited with permission of Pluto Press AustraliaIn this chapter we argue that the present Australian scheme of public funding of election campaigns has not achieved the goals that we would hope to achieve through public funding. Thus the system needs to be modified so that fun ding is used to secure greater fairness and better deliberation during election campaigns. In Par t I of the chapte r we set out some of the advantages that could conceivably be secure d thro ugh a system of public funding of political parties. In Part 2 we examine the current public funding arra ngeme nts in Australia. In Part 3 we consider some potential dangers and harms that can follow when a funding system is not care fully targeted , and ask how effective the existing scheme ha s been in helping to secure th e benefit s that public funding schemes are supposed to promote. Part 4 proposes some future strategies for reform, and Part 5 is our conclusion