More than $70 million that flowed to the Liberal and Labor parties ahead of last year's federal election – at least half of all the money they collected – is considered untraceable dark money.
An analysis of the Australian Electoral Commission's latest financial disclosure returns by researcher Lindy Edwards reveals 66 per cent of Liberal Party income and 49 per cent of Labor Party income in 2015-16 cannot be attributed to any specific donors.
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Transparency, but not quite yet
Malcolm Turnbull says he supports the speedy publication of political donations - then declines to reveal his own donations made during last year's election campaign. Courtesy ABC News 24.
That means it's almost impossible to tell where $45.8 million given to the Liberals and $24.4 million given to Labor actually originated, the University of New South Wales lecturer says.
Both parties use fundraising bodies known as "associated entities" and loose definitions of what constitutes donation, which allows the monies raised to avoid proper scrutiny.
![Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull indicated on Wednesday that he supports reform to political donations.](/web/20170202034552im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/3/0/x/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu3kx8.png/1485996637095.jpg)
The Coalition also exploits the high donation disclosure threshold of $13,200 to split large donations between multiple jurisdictions. Labor voluntarily discloses donations over $1000.
"Only 13 per cent of the Liberal Party's income and 21 per cent of Labor's income is clearly attributed to specific donors," Dr Edwards, a former adviser to the Howard government, told Fairfax Media.
"We're only being allowed to see a very small part of the picture."
The national director of left-wing activist group GetUp!, Paul Oosting, said it was clear the parties had something to hide.
![Dr Lindy Edwards](/web/20170202034552im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/1/1/u/8/v/m/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gu3kx8.png/1485996637095.jpg)
"They wouldn't go to such extreme lengths to hide the money trail if there wasn't something dodgy going on behind closed doors," he said.
"When billionaire corporations flood our political system with huge sums of untraceable dark money, they drown out the voices of everyday Australians. And when corporations can pump this much dark money into politics, is it any wonder that time and time again we see politicians giving them special treatment?"
There have been renewed calls to reform the political donations system after Wednesday's disclosures.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has thrown his support behind a ban on foreign donations and says he would support more transparency.
Mr Turnbull finally confirmed on Wednesday he gave $1.75 million to his own party to help its flagging election campaign last year. His donation did not appear in the AEC disclosures because it was given after the June 30 cut-off.
Labor has accused him of buying the election.
Both major parties have set up a wide array of of associated entities – from the Free Enterprise Foundation to Parakeelia on the Liberal side, to the Progressive Business Association on the Labor side – which critics claim allow the parties to effectively raise money.
The ultimate source of their money is often unclear.
GetUp! says the parties also use "creative accounting techniques" to classify payments as "other receipts" instead of donations – meaning they get mixed in with all other income like share dividends and service fees for reporting purposes.
Current rules require donations of more than $13,200 to be disclosed, but some donors split contributions into smaller amounts on different days or to different party branches to avoid having to identify themselves.
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