Two investors, the businessman Graeme Wood and the mathematician Duncan Turpie, each donated half a million dollars to the Victorian Greens to fund their 2016 federal election campaign.
They were equal highest donors to the campaign. The Electrical Trades Union donated $320,000.
The figures for the top three donors were released by the Victorian Greens state director, Larissa Brown, on Friday, ahead of any other political party.
Wood, the Wotif founder and internet entrepreneur, also donated $130,000 to the party’s Tasmanian campaign, and $200,000 to the independent candidate Tony Windsor’s campaign against Barnaby Joyce, the deputy prime minister and Nationals leader, in New England. “These donations reflect my long term support for a more progressive Australia,” Wood said.
Wood, who provided a loan for the launch of Guardian Australia, gave the largest political donation in Australian history in 2010, when he gave the Greens $1.6m. The money was used to fund a national television advertising campaign.
Parties need to disclose donations of more than $13,200 to the Australian Electoral Commission by November, and the commission makes those disclosures public in early 2017. However, the Victorian Greens will be disclosing all donations over $1,000 in coming weeks.
“This election more people than ever before were prepared to dig deep to ensure the Greens continued to hold the government to account on climate change, refugees and inequality,” Brown told Guardian Australia.
“While we are very grateful for the generous support of so many people who gave generously to our campaign, the Greens will continue to make donations reform a priority.”
- This story was amended on 29 July 2016 to correct the amount donated by the Electrical Trades Union from $350,000 to $320,000.
