A Melbourne property developer who gave almost $70,000 to gain “access” to One Nation if the party regained influence in Queensland has said he no longer believes in a system of political donations that has left Australia “worse off”.
Bill McNee’s company Vicland has emerged as a backer of Pauline Hanson in the first half of last year, paying 12 months’ rent in advance for One Nation’s Brisbane office as part of a declared gift of $57,720.
The donation, which came after Hanson’s narrow loss in the state seat of Lockyer in January 2015, was followed later in the year with another $10,000 from Vicland.
But McNee, whose company disappeared from One Nation’s donor list in the six months leading up to Hanson’s resurgence in the federal election, has said he will stop donating to political parties because “it’s wrong”.
The prominent inner-city apartment builder, who last year paid $13m for a 260-apartment development site in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, told the Australian: “We wanted to be involved if they were to take government in Queensland.”
But McNee said he now had no dialogue with the party and would not make any further political donations as “it’s something I don’t believe in any longer”.
“It’s sad … it really shouldn’t be occurring,” he said. “It’s wrong. It’s very, very wrong. Australia is worse off for it.”
The donation by McNee, who was reportedly impressed by Hanson coming within 204 votes of winning Lockyer, is the largest to One Nation in recent years.
One Nation in Queensland has received only four other donations since July 2012, totalling $35,150, according to electoral commission returns.
Hanson herself was forced to lend the party $190,000 for the campaign in the months before the federal election, where One Nation gained four senators and a swag of double-digit primary vote returns across Queensland electorates.
McNee told the Australian his company had “no allegiances politically” and had also donated more than $200,000 to the Coalition and Labor since 2014.
Asked why it was in his business interest to give to One Nation, McNee said: “I guess it gives you access to … people from time to time that you possibly wouldn’t have. That’s the purpose of it.”
He said Vicland had business opportunities in Queensland where “we were approached … We thought they [One Nation] were going to make a serious attempt there in the state election and given the past up there … we made a donation to them in the very same way we made donations to the Liberals and the Labor party”.
McNee said Hanson spoke to him by phone after the donation and that “my observation was she was willing to listen to any side of the argument, which was quite good”.
He said he “did not have a clue” what had been done with the money.
Access to development work in inner Brisbane construction sites usually hinges on signing an enterprise bargaining agreement with the Construction Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).
One Nation last month revealed its senators would support a Coalition bill to reintroduce the Australian Building and Construction Commission, abolished by Labor in 2012 and bitterly opposed by the CFMEU.
An amended return, signed by the former One Nation Queensland director Ian Nelson in June, states that Vicland in 2015 paid $25,740 as a year’s rent in advance for One Nation’s office in Albion in Brisbane’s inner north. Vicland also paid the $2,250 deposit.
The Greens’ deputy leader, the Queensland senator Larissa Waters, accused Hanson of “taking a leaf out of the old two parties’ playbook” by accepting support from a property developer.
“Despite claiming to stand up for marginalised Australians, One Nation is acting just like the other big parties who take money from property developers and big business instead speaking for communities,” Waters said.
“Political donations from property developers, gambling, alcohol and tobacco companies are banned in NSW and the Greens are the only party working to legislate a similar ban at a national level to get big business out of our democracy.”
Attempts by Guardian Australia to reach McNee on Monday were not successful.
Nelson said he was no longer a member of the party and it would be inappropriate to comment on details of how the Vicland contribution was spent.
Gregory Smith, another One Nation office holder who signed a subsequent return to the Queensland Electoral Commission, did not return calls.
A spokesman for Hanson was contacted for comment.
