Barnaby Joyce’s decision to accept money from Channel Seven in return for giving an interview about his relationship with his former staffer, Vikki Campion, calls into question his fitness for public office.

This resource argues that the Turnbull Government’s proposal to ban foreign donations and limit political contributions from charities is a flawed and rash proposal that would undermine democracy.

There were about 230 million Americans eligible to vote on election day in 2016. 170 million either didn’t vote or didn’t vote for Trump. This means that nearly 75 percent of American voters who could cast a vote for president didn’t vote for the man who was elected.

The week’s two big political campaigning scandals — Cambridge Analytica’s data-harvesting and Labor’s funding scam in Victoria — highlight the temptations facing parties desperate to win government. For Labor, an Ombudsman’s report on the affair places valuable information in the hands of the Victorian Opposition.

This report argues that if the major parties and politicians want to rebuild trust with voters, they will need to change the way they do politics: stop misusing their entitlements, strengthen political donations laws, tighten regulation of lobbyists, and slow the revolving door between political offices and lobbying positions.