School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia.
Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK.
Drug Alcohol Rev. 2019 Mar;38(3):226-233. doi: 10.1111/dar.12878. Epub 2018 Nov 25.
Business corporations' use of political donations to garner political influence is especially troubling in relation to products that damage human health. We sought to investigate patterns of donations to Australian political parties from tobacco, alcohol and gambling industry actors and the experiences of key informants.
We analysed public data on federal and state donations for 10 years to June 2015. We conducted 28 semi-structured interviews with current and former politicians, ex-political staffers and other key informants, concerning the role played by political donations of tobacco, alcohol and gambling companies in Australian politics. We examined temporal associations in donations data, and thematically analysed interviews.
Australian political parties declared donations of A$14 million (US$11 M) from tobacco ($1.9 M), alcohol ($7.7 M), gambling ($2.9 M) and supermarket ($1.7 M) entities, excluding donations below the $12 800 reporting threshold. Donations to the governing party increased substantially during debates about an alcohol tax and gambling law reform. Alcohol industry donations to major parties spiked ahead of elections. Interviewees identified the function of donations in terms of: (i) buying immediate influence; (ii) building long-term relationships; (iii) exploiting a flawed political system; and (iv) the need to look beyond donations, for example, to favour exchange; and the public's right to know about corporate influence on policy-makers.
The alcohol and gambling industries make substantial donations to influence particular decisions in the short term and build relationships over the long term. Banning corporate donations and publicly funding political parties warrant consideration to safeguard the integrity of public policy-making.
企业利用政治捐款来获取政治影响力，尤其是在涉及损害人类健康的产品方面，这尤其令人担忧。我们试图调查烟草、酒精和赌博行业参与者向澳大利亚政党捐款的模式，以及主要知情者的经验。
我们分析了截至 2015 年 6 月的 10 年联邦和州捐款的公共数据。我们对现任和前任政治家、前政治工作人员和其他主要知情者进行了 28 次半结构化访谈，内容涉及烟草、酒精和赌博公司的政治捐款在澳大利亚政治中所扮演的角色。我们检查了捐款数据中的时间关联，并对访谈进行了主题分析。
澳大利亚政党宣布收到来自烟草（190 万澳元）、酒精（7700 万澳元）、赌博（2900 万澳元）和超市（1700 万澳元）实体的 1400 万澳元（1100 万美元）捐款，不包括低于 12800 澳元报告门槛的捐款。在关于酒精税和赌博法改革的辩论期间，执政党的捐款大幅增加。选举前，酒精行业向主要政党的捐款大幅增加。受访者认为捐款的作用在于：（i）购买即时影响力；（ii）建立长期关系；（iii）利用有缺陷的政治制度；（iv）需要超越捐款，例如，寻求利益交换；以及公众了解企业对政策制定者的影响的权利。
酒精和赌博行业进行大量捐款，以在短期内影响特定决策，并在长期内建立关系。禁止企业捐款和公开资助政党值得考虑，以维护公共政策制定的完整性。
