Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Continuing with Don Farrell’s interview on ABC’s RN Breakfast, the special minister of state also touched on the electoral reforms that passed through the Senate late last night after Labor cut a deal with the Coalition, in a move that has infuriated the crossbench.Farrell said the move has “dramatically increased the transparency of the Australian political system”.“For the first time, when you will walk into the ballot place in the election after next … you’ll know exactly who else is donating to the campaign that you’re contemplating supporting,” he said.LoadingThe crossbench’s criticism, that the reforms entrench a major party advantage by giving its candidates access to both an electorate fund and a party fund, was put to Farrell, who then tried to argue that it was actually the reverse.“At the moment there is no cap at all on what campaigns can spend. The major parties, the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, have voluntarily capped the amount of money that they can spend on an election, so that, in fact, it’s the opposite of the criticism that is being made about this legislation,” Farrell said.“We’re actually reducing the amount of money that the major political parties can spend on an election, and that is to the benefit of all candidates.”Immediately following Farrell on RN Breakfast was Teal MP Zali Steggall, who called out Farrell’s “hubris”.“I was listening to him, and some of his engagement is just breathtaking,” Steggall said.“This concept that they’re taking big money out of politics and campaigns. What he’s not telling you is that they’re dipping their hand in the public purse. So what this is going to result is they’ve just given themselves a 47 per cent rise in how much the public pays per vote to the major parties and an administrative payment per year to every MP that will go to some $4.8 million a year to political parties to pay for things like interest on their loans, political party conferences and all those kinds of things. So I do call BS.”After their back-to-back interviews, Farrell and Steggall had a tense run-in outside the ABC studio in Parliament House. We’ll have a full report of that interaction shortly.
