The scale of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's personal donation to the troubled Liberal Party election campaign will be kept secret for another year.
While reports have suggested Mr Turnbull donated as much as $2 million to to his party's re-election fight – a claim the Prime Minister has never denied – there is no trace of the contribution in the latest Australian Electoral Commission returns.
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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 absence suggests Mr Turnbull gave the money after June 30, which was just two days before polling day. Mr Turnbull's office has declined to comment.
Asked about his donation in Parliament last year, Mr Turnbull said: "Any disclosures I make were made in accordance with the law and to the electoral commission and are then disclosed by the AEC at the normal time. I comply scrupulously with the law."
Mining businessman Paul Marks was the biggest single donor to any party, personally giving $1.3 million to the Liberal Party in July 2015.
It is believed to be the second biggest personal donation in Australian history, behind only Graeme Wood's $1.6 million 2010 donation to the Greens. His companies gave a further $150,000 to Liberal Party branches around the country.
Mr Marks is a controversial figure, closely linked to Turnbull government MP Stuart Robert. Mr Robert was sacked from Mr Turnbull's frontbench last year after being accused of using his ministerial office to open doors for Mr Marks and his companies in China.
Cabinet ministers also contributed to the flagging Liberal campaign, including Immigration Minister Peter Dutton with $50,000 and Education Minister Simon Birmingham with $20,000. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann gave $29,000 through his fundraising vehicle. Greg Mirabella, the husband of former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella, donated $35,000.
Mr Wood – the wealthy founder of travel website Wotif – was also a major donor this year, giving another $636,000 to the Greens, making him their primary benefactor.
![Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.](/web/20170202165217im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/p/w/l/h/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2pnm.png/1485924268318.jpg)
Reclusive mathematician, investor and high-end gambler Duncan Turpie was also a big contributor to the Greens, giving half a million dollars, and respected scientist and Louise Crossley left the Greens $100,000 in her will.
Another major donor was property company Hong King Kingson, which gave $710,000 to the Liberals and $150,000 to Labor. This is one of the companies run by a little-known Australian-Chinese property billionaire Chau Chak Wing, who donates most years.
Company Top Education Group donated more than $48,000 to the Liberal Party and $23,000 to the Labor Party during the financial year. Labor's Sam Dastyari was forced to resign from the frontbench last year after it emerged he asked the company to pay a bill for him.
Both major parties also accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the gambling lobby.
The Nationals took $14,800 from big tobacco company Philip Morris, despite recently saying the party had not accepted any such donations since 2014. Philip Morris also donated $20,000 to the libertarian Liberal Democrats.
The data dump shows donations are down across the board between the 2013 federal election and the 2016 federal election and the shortfall has left the major parties carrying significant debts.
The Coalition is now in debt to the tune of $38.37 million, the Labor Party owes $36.35 million and the Greens are in the red by $4.1 million.
Although the debts include big ticket items such as mortgages held over buildings the parties have bought, the amount of debt the parties are carrying demonstrates their tight operating environment.
Payments, including donations, received by parties also fell largely across the board between the 2013 and 2016 election campaigns.
The Labor Party received $49 million in 2015/16 - down from $79 million in 2013/14. Payments to the Greens also decreased from $20 million to $14.5 million.
But the biggest drop was suffered by the Coalition, which received just over a half of the money going into the 2016 campaign than it had in 2013. In the financial year of the 2013 election the Coalition received $141 million but in 2015/16 it received only $77 million. Payments to the Nick Xenophon Team also decreased, while payments to One Nation increased from $48,000 to $295,000.
Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting gave the Nationals $58,000. She is close friends with Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce. NSW-based resources company AusGold Mining gave $302,000 to the Liberals.
The Health Services Union was Labor's biggest single benefactor, giving $389,232.
Pratt Holdings gave to both parties – but $830,000 to the Liberals and just $20,000 to Labor.
Clive Palmer's companies Mineralogy and Queensland Nickel gave his now-defunct Palmer United Party $400,000 and $230,000 respectively.
Greens democracy spokeswoman Lee Rhiannon said the latest disclosures were yet more proof Australia's current donations law were "utterly inadequate".
"It seems Prime Minister Turnbull has used a loophole in the donations laws to avoid scrutiny for another 12 months," she said.
"The Prime Minister won't even tell the public how much he bankrolled his own party. His response is that he has complied with all the rules – and to that the Greens say the rules must change."
Paul Oosting, National Director of activist group GetUp! said that it appeared Turnbull deliberately held the donation back until the last day of the campaign.
"Intentionally keeping the details of his donation from the Australian people for as long as possible is just plain shady," he said.
Mr Turnbull began the year promising to overhaul the system of MPs' entitlements and allowances, saying: "We owe the people of Australia the greatest transparency and the greatest accountability ... I firmly believe that putting information up there for the public, in as close to real time as you can, is highly desirable."
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