Federal politicians are free to trade in the sharemarket, as long as they’re not ministers. The reason ministers are subject to limitations, as alluded to in the Albanese government’s code of conduct, is that the perception might arise of a conflict of interest. That makes sense — after all, ministers have great influence over policy that might move the market, and may be privy to information that’s not known to other traders.
But it’s possible that even backbenchers may receive an unfair advantage, because they too have influence over policy and can become aware of sensitive information.
Those risks aside, we here at Crikey have a fundamental belief that voters should know about the corporate interests and financial holdings of their elected officials.
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That’s why we teamed up with the transparency website Open Politics to provide a searchable list of all shares declared by MPs in the most recent Parliament. As we reported earlier in the week, about a third of our federal politicians have declared shares held by them or their family members.
In the list below, you can see many politicians have chosen to invest in industries such as mining and energy, banks, big supermarkets, gambling and alcohol. Most, if not all, of those industries have been subject to proposed regulatory initiatives in recent years.
You can also see at a glance below which companies are the most popular among politicians and their spouses/partners.
What do you think about the ethics of these investments? Write to us at letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
