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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Paul Karp and Nick Evershed

Election funding: major parties scoop $50.7m of $62.8m total

Malcolm Turnbull And Bill Shorten
Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten. The Coalition and Labor received a total of $50.7m from the Australian Electoral Commission. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images

The Australian Electoral Commission has doled out a total of $62.8m in public electoral funding, including $50.7m to Labor and the Coalition.

On Wednesday the AEC authorised the second and final payment of $2.3m to political parties and candidates for votes at the 2016 federal election. It followed an interim payment of $60.5m made in late July.

After both payments the Liberal party received a total of $24.2m, the Nationals got $3.3m and Labor got $23.2m. The Australian Greens received $6.7m.

Minor parties with the biggest share of funding were Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party ($1.7m), the Nick Xenophon Team ($1.2m) and Derryn Hinch’s Justice party ($0.6m).

Under public election funding laws, the AEC pays $2.63 a vote to all parties and candidates who receive 4% or more of the first-preference votes.

Independents who received funding included Cathy McGowan ($82,346) and Andrew Wilkie ($77,185).

Unsuccessful independent candidates Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott still collected $72,957 and $71,477 respectively.

Federal election payments to political parties and candidates

The other former MPs who received funding included the Glenn Lazarus Team, which got $21,435, and the dumped Liberal MP for Tangney, Dennis Jensen, who ran as an independent and got $26,079.

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