She/Her/Hey Whatsyourname
Kaltxì ma eylan!
An-prim / Social Ecology / Gaian
Random Australian, Gaian and ecology stuff.
@PhilipCJames@mas.to @wood5y@mastodonapp.uk In all seriousness... I think there is a place for the precautionary principle when it comes to political corruption in all western democracies (including my own).
The safeguards should be designed with no assumption of "reasonableness" or "good intention".
Safeguards should assume corruption as the default, that is endemic, and that there is no reasonable expectation of innocent intention or honest mistake.
Ban all donations from corporate bodies (profit or nonprofit). Only private individuals may donate.
No individual may donate more than $5,000 total in one financial year.
All donations over $500 are publicly listed IN REAL TIME.
Donations may only be made to the National Anti-Corruption Commission who holds the funds in trust. The parties must request use of the funds for legitimate expenses and campaigns only, which the NACC pays directly. No one in the party can ever access a single dollar of donated funds.
All non-financial donations except personal volunteering are subject to the same disclosures and limits based on the market price of the resources provided.
Politicians entering parliament are prohibited from any contact whatsoever with previous employers, and consent to their personal and work devices being regularly searched by digital forensics for compliance.
Candidates who have worked in a upper managerial/consultantcy/executive capacity in the last 15 years for an employer who gains more than 20% of their income from contracts with federal or state/territory governments are barred from standing.
When entering parliament, politicians must give up any external jobs. With the exception of the immediate personal assets such as home, vehicles, personal effects and reasonable savings buffer (say $100k max), all other assets are frozen and inaccessible. All financial accounts and investments are held by the NACC in a trust account until 12 months after the politician leaves office.
If there is any investigation into potential corrupt dealings by a politician while in office, their property is withheld by the NACC until such time as they are cleared of wrongdoing. If they are not, the property is forfeited. The money is dispersed to charities whose role most closely matches the areas of life most directly impacted by their crime. Vehicles and standalone real-estate (cars, boats, planes, houses) will be destroyed with the corrupt peoples present to observe, and the scrap value of vehicles, and sale of the land itself for real-estate will be passed to charity.
After leaving office there is a 15 year ban on any employment in a consulting, managerial, communications or executive roles with any employer that gains more than 20% of it's annual income from federal or state/territory government contracts.