Parliamentary and Electoral Reform Minister Geoff Gallop is seeking a meeting with his Federal and State counterparts.
Dr Gallop said today that it was established practice for Ministers for Education, Police and Attorneys General to meet to discuss issues. Consequently, it was a puzzle that Ministers responsible for electoral matters did not have similar conferences.
"One of the issues I believe we should be conferring on is the Commonwealth's Political Broadcasts and Political Disclosures Act," Dr Gallop said.
"This legislation has implications for general elections in all the States and Territories and the relevant Ministers should be putting their heads together on this.
"Inquiries into disclosure of the sources of finance for political parties have revealed that weaknesses in relevant laws could be attributed to the Federal nature of Australia.
"I believe we should be seeking common ground for State laws to ensure that weaknesses are not exploited to avoid disclosure of political finances in any one State.
"Additionally, I think we should be looking at political finance from outside of Australia as a possible problem."
Dr Gallop said the Western Australian Parliament was currently considering the WA Government's Electoral Amendment (Political Finance) Bill. He was of the opinion that this legislation could be a model for other States to complement the Commonwealth law.
"It would also be interesting to canvass the views of States about the current inquiry by the Commonwealth Parliament Joint Standing Committee on Electoral matters," he said.
"One of its terms of reference is whether there should be a single body to conduct all State and Federal elections.
"Roll maintenance arrangements are also the subject of inquiry."
The Minister said he had written to his Commonwealth and State counterparts to suggest that they should meet later this year.
The conference could explore many issues with a view to finding common ground to improve electoral provisions across the country.
