Major parties banked a record amount of taxpayer funding in 2019-20 including $2.4m in grants from the finance department and at least $300,000 in jobkeeper payments and the cashflow boost tax concession, according to their financial disclosures.
The 2019-20 disclosures to the Australian Electoral Commission, released on Monday, reveal the importance of public funding to party finances, including wage subsidies and money delivered through the little-known Australian Political Parties for Democracy Program.
According to an AEC report in November, the program paid out a total of $68.6m in public funding to political parties for their performance at the 2019 election, including $27.6m to the Liberal party, $24.7m to Labor, and $2.8m to One Nation.
In their returns, both major parties declared a further $1.1m “discretionary benefit” from the finance department, for their participation in the democracy program which funds international trips to further the development of political party systems in partner countries.
The Greens, which were added to the Australian Political Parties for Democracy Program in 2010 after it was created in 2005, declared $220,000.
Labor declared two jobkeeper payments worth a total of $96,000 while the Liberal Party banked two totalling $78,000.
As companies that qualified for jobkeeper were entitled to the payment for six months until the end of September, both are expected to declare further payments in the 2020-21 financial year.
The Liberal National party of Queensland declared two payments from the Australian Taxation Office totalling $72,000, while One Nation received two totalling $36,000 – payments which also appear to be wage subsidies. Guardian Australia has contacted the parties for comment.
In August the ABC reported that both the South Australian division of the Liberal party and branch of the Labor party had claimed jobkeeper wage subsidies, however the SA Liberal party did not disclose any payments from the ATO. SA Labor disclosed an “other receipt” of $343,023 from the ATO.
The Liberal party received two “other receipts” from the ATO, worth $1.8m and $1.2m, which Guardian Australia understands were GST refunds for spending related to the 2019 election.
Labor’s ACT branch declared $42,660 from the ATO for “cash flow boost”, an early coronavirus stimulus program that provided tax credits worth up to $100,000 for businesses and not-for-profits earning less than $50m.
A spokesperson for the national office of the Greens said it did not claim jobkeeper but “we did receive the cashflow boost as it was an automatic payment based on the payroll we reported to the tax office”.
The major parties also declared payments from the finance department for training, including $75,577 to the Liberal party, $63,605 to Labor and $52,353 to the Greens.
The Greens spokesperson explained the payment was for the voter information security enhancement program. The payments relate to training provided by the political parties to the staff of members of parliament.
