Political donations to reach $1 billion thanks to big business donors
Updated
Declared donations and payments to Australian political parties are about to top $1 billion, a new analysis of data shows.
Key points:
- Political donation laws "corrupt, opaque and undermine democracy": Monash researcher
- Most generous industries for political donations were property, financial and pharmaceutical industries
- Labor and Greens expected to push for reforms to laws when Parliament resumes next year
But the true figure could be triple that because donations under $13,200 do not have to be declared.
"It's very hard to know because disclosure laws in Australia are very opaque, they're not transparent," Monash University's Dr Charles Livingstone said.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it was twice or three times as much as been declared, at least."
Dr Livingstone has studied political donations and in particular how donations made by the gambling industry have influenced public policy.
He says the current laws are "corrupt, they're opaque and they undermine democracy".
The new database has been compiled by the Greens from donations and payments declared to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) between 1998 and 2015.
The current funding and disclosure scheme has been in place since the 1984 election, but the electoral commission website only publishes returns from 1998 onwards.
An analysis by the ABC shows tracing the source of the donations is also difficult, because more than 20 per cent of the money was funnelled through organisations called associated entities.
Labor and the Greens are expected to push for reforms to political donation laws when Parliament resumes next year.
They want a ban on foreign donations and for all donations above $1,000 to be declared.
"The political donations regime in Australia is not only a mess, it's open to corruption," Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon said.
"People are becoming increasingly cynical about the influence rich people and corporations are having on our political process."
The Greens are also calling for the real time disclosure of political donations.
Under the current disclosure regime, donations in the lead up to this year's federal election will not be released until next year.
Australia's biggest donors
Donations and payments declared to the AEC between 1998 and 2015 have been collated into a central, searchable database.
It includes receipts for $994,822,181 in donations and other payments called "other receipts" or "subscriptions".
The largest corporate donors over the 17-year period were:
- Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd — $21,664,196
One of Clive Palmer's companies, now in liquidation, has donated to his own political party and to the Liberal and National parties.
- Mineralogy Pty Ltd — $14,692,636
Another of Clive Palmer's companies that made significant donations to his own party and to the Liberal and National parties, despite reporting consecutive losses to the ASX.
- Village Roadshow Limited — $5,022,263
The company made large payments to both the Labor and Liberal parties while lobbying for a crackdown on digital piracy.
- Pratt Holdings — $4,609,733
Linked to Melbourne's well-connected Pratt family who made their fortune with Visy Industries, a paper, packaging and recycling company.
The most generous industries over the 17-year period were:
- The property industry — $64,099,161
- Financial and insurance industries — $37,078,539
- Pharmaceutical/health — $12,625,078
Dr Livingstone said donations from some industries needed to be banned.
"That would include the gambling industry, the fast food industry, the alcohol industry and the tobacco industry," he said.
Individuals do not donate to Australian political parties on the scale seen in other countries like America.
The largest individual donation was $1,469,619 from entrepreneur Graeme Wood to the Greens in the 2010-2011 financial year.
In terms of total donations, the most generous individuals were:
- Lord Michael Ashcroft — $1,772,938
A conservative UK businessman who has donated to the Liberal Party in Australia.
- Graeme Wood — $1,680,795
A digital entrepreneur and environmentalist who has donated to the Greens.
- Henry Ray Gillham — $1,035,900
A Queensland grazier who stood as a candidate for the Citizens Electoral Council in the 2004 federal election, but forgot to fill in his own ballot paper correctly. His donations were all to the CEC.
Foreign influences buy-in
Labor, the Greens and some government backbenchers are pushing for a ban on foreign donations.
Businesses with Chinese connections are easily the largest foreign-linked donors to the two major parties.
An investigation by the ABC found they gave more than $5.5 million between 2013 and 2015 and Australian defence and intelligence agencies are increasingly uneasy about their level of influence.
Labor's secured the support of the Greens for its bill to ban foreign donations.
It will be debated in the Senate early next year, but will struggle to find support in the lower house unless the Government changes its policy.
Topics: government-and-politics, political-parties, money-and-monetary-policy, australia
First posted
