Labor and Coalition accused of cooking up ‘secret deal’ on electoral rules as Clive Palmer signals court challenge

David Pocock says the legislation is ‘a major party stitch-up that subverts parliamentary process and seeks to lock out more community independents’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Independents have accused the Albanese government of attempting to “rig” electoral rules in a “major party stitch-up” which the billionaire Clive Palmer has already said he will take to the high court.

On Friday the special minister of state, Don Farrell, announced details of Labor’s electoral reform bill, including raising public funding to $5 a vote, a $20,000 cap on individual donations and an $800,000 cap on spending per electorate.