Malcolm Turnbull’s reported $2m donation to the Liberal party during the 2016 election campaign has not appeared in the much anticipated 2015-16 party disclosures.
This means that, if the donation was made, it was on the day before the 2 July election, 1 July, the first day of the financial year – delaying the disclosure for another year.
Asked at his first major speech whether he would reveal the donation before the next disclosure, the prime minister said: “My donations to the Liberal party have been regular and generous and I would encourage others to do the same.”
The Liberal party’s federal director, Tony Nutt, said the Liberal party disclosures for the 2015-16 financial year were complete.
The annual disclosures to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), which list direct donations to political parties, show extensive use of associated entities by the major parties.
Associated entities disguise the donation so a person or business can donate to one of these entities and, as a result, the name of the donor will not be declared by the political party, only declared by the entity.
For the Liberal party, the Cormack Foundation donated $3.1m. For the Labor party, Labor Holdings donated $3.86m.
The Liberal party received $715,840 from Parakeelia, the entity wholly owned by the party, which was caught up in a furore after it was revealed Liberal MPs use their taxpayer allowance to purchase services. Parakeelia regularly donates to the party.
The Liberal party also received $535,086 from former Victorian Liberal state director Damien Mantach, who was jailed for almost three years for stealing more than $1.5m from his party. Nutt said the payment from Mantach was part restitution.
Large single donors include the mining magnate Paul Marks, who donated a total of $1.45m to various branches of the Liberal party in 2015-16. Marks, a long-time Liberal party donor, had former assistant defence minister Stuart Robert at an event in Beijing to celebrate a deal involving his mining company Nimrod Resources. Robert was subsequently dumped from the Turnbull ministry.
Pratt Holdings, the paper company built by the late Richard Pratt, gave $850,000 in total to the Liberal party, with $300,000 of that listed as an “other receipt” rather than donation. Parties are able to classify amounts in those categories at their own discretion, where “other receipt” may refer to anything from financial returns from investments or payment for event tickets in lieu of donations.
Aus Gold Mining Group Pty Ltd donated $460,000 to the Liberal party.
Chau Chak Wing, a property developer based in Hong Kong donated through Hong Kong Kingson Investment Ltd. He donated $510,000 in three donations to federal branch of the Liberal party and $200,000 to WA liberals. He also donated $100,000 to federal Labor and $50,000 to NSW Labor.
Labor’s largest donors were unions including the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, which donated to Labor branches and to associated entities ($2.1m), and United Voice ($520,00) and the CFMEU ($266,800). Labor also received donations from Woodside Energy ($110,000) and ANZ ($100,000).
Mathematician Duncan Turpie and businessman Graeme Wood gave $500,000 each to the Victorian Greens for the election.
The National party’s biggest single donors include Manildra ($133,900), Ognis Pty Ltd ($100,000) and Trepang Services ($70,000). The National party also received $58,000 from Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party declared total receipts of $333,198, of which $190,000 came in the form of loans from Hanson, with the Queensland Electoral Commission making up the difference.
Nick Xenophon’s party had one major donation of $100,000 from Golden Lineage Pty Ltd and one other large amount of $250,000 declared as an “other receipt” from Wright Street Nominees Pty Ltd.
Overall, funds to the major parties were significantly down on the 2013 election. Total receipts declared by the parties as a group shows the Liberal party received $45m less in the last election compared with the 2013 election, which brought Tony Abbott to power. Funding to the ALP as a group were down $15.4m.
Individual politicians – past and present – also donated to their parties over the period. The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, donated $50,000 and the education minister, Simon Birmingham, donated $20,000 – both to the Liberal party. Retired resources minister, now head of the Queensland Resources Council, Ian Macfarlane, donated $69,502 to his old party. The Liberal party clarified that the donations from Dutton and Birmingham were from the members local electoral organisations.
The Queensland Sporting Shooters donated $75,000 to Katter’s Australian party. The Victorian branch Sporting Shooters gave $15,800 to the Liberal Democrats in NSW, led by Senator David Leyonhjelm, who is campaigning against the longstanding controls over the Adler shotgun.
The Liberal, National and Shooters Fishers and Farmers parties all received donations from the Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia.
Political donations has long been a vexed issue which political parties favouring different versions of reform.
Labor, the Greens and members of the Coalition LNP Cory Bernardi want to ban foreign donations.
Turnbull has long been in favour of limiting donations to people on the electoral roll, which would exclude foreign donations, corporate donations and trade union donations.
The former NSW premier Mike Baird tried to put the issue of national donations reform on the Council of Australian Governments meeting agenda after a NSW expert panel recommended tougher donations caps.
