Word has been going around, by means of written media coverage, that the political parties of Malta are contemplating the introduction of laws regulating and legislating party funding.
A lot of focus is currently being placed upon the thresholds for anonymous contributions and how much that threshold ought to be. Somewhat less attention is given to the question of whether there ought to be a threshold at all or even whether it is desirable or not.
Perhaps more important was the less-mentioned aspect of the proposed legislation which implies the use of public funds to finance parties. This in itself was probably the most remarkable aspect as in simple terms the members of parliament are being asked to consider what in effect constitutes a pay-rise for their parties. What non-altruistic MP would consider opposing?
It is unclear whether the legislation would include regulations as to how the funds gained in such a fashion may be spent. Still, the tax payers are hard-pressed as it is. Between income tax, N.I. contributions (a gamble in themselves), “Value-added” tax, and a number of other annual charges such as road taxes and such, the tax-payer is already hard-done and to expect them to dig deeper into their pockets for something the compulsory finance of the parties, it just becomes silly… day-light robbery even.
The silver lining would be an added motivator for start-up parties to break the current bi-polar partisan situation… but such hardly seems the way to go about it.
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