Holding the parliamentary inquiry into the Restoring Electoral Fairness Bill over the holiday break will limit the ability of the committee to investigate the consequences of the bill for Queensland democracy.

That is worrying, because there are serious concerns with the changes proposed by the Queensland Government.

Queensland’s ban on political donations by property developers is targeted, constitutional and based on well-established corruption risks. Lifting the ban would risk “clientelism” where decision-makers put the interests of their patrons above the public interest.

Donation caps are a fraught issue, and there is a good argument for either higher donation caps or for donation caps to be replaced by a mega-donor cap. However, shifting from a per-cycle donation cap to a per-year donation cap benefits the major parties at the expense of new entrants. Only established parties and sitting MPs are likely to fundraise over all four years of an electoral cycle, so they can in effect raise much more money than a new party or independent candidate can.

Another unfair element of Queensland’s donation caps is that a donor can give $12,000 to a political party and its candidates, but only $7,200 to an independent candidate. These should be equalised, either by lowering the party cap, raising the independent cap, or by replacing the donation cap altogether with something more effective like a mega-donor cap.

The bill also proposes restricting the voting rights of those imprisoned or detained. Prisoners are more exposed to the operation of the state government than almost anyone else in Queensland. In addition, those with less than four years left on their sentences will be re-joining the community during the term of the parliament. They should not have their voting rights further restricted.