Australia

The article makes it seem like this is equivalent to the social membership priced at $5 for 2 years. Common sense says failing to declare $2.50 a year of pecuniary interest was an oversight and not wrongdoing. There has to be a threshold on this stuff surely. If a gold coin falls out of a hole in my pocket and a politician picks it up does it serve the public to give it the same amount of attention as the level of political corruption where politicians are enriching themselves or families by massive sums.

Feels like the effort would have been better spent on the politicians getting kickbacks from developers, accepting bribes from lobbyists. Is an overlooked $2 as significant as all those cushy jobs retired politicians get with defence or fossil fuel company that benefited from decisions made when in office.

This isn't exactly sports rorts. I am sure this government has some crooked members doing crooked things like any government. There are always a few bad eggs and the media ideally should help hold them to account and inform voters. But this seems exceptionally weak given some of the other shit that goes on in Australian politics.

Yes, they should put government officials under more scrutiny when grants are given.