Queensland’s Liberal National party government will overturn a ban on property developer donations and quadruple the state cap on electoral donations, after tabling new laws which the Greens claim will “legalise another avenue of corruption”.
Developers have been prohibited from donating to candidates and parties in state elections since a 2018 bill passed under Labor.
The attorney general, Deb Frecklington, said the ban was a “financial gerrymander”, because it didn’t apply to trade unions and that the LNP’s bill would “promote freedom of expression”.
“This is an election commitment that we took to the election. There is no surprise here. We are doing exactly what we said we were going to do,” Frecklington said.
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“Trade unions, property developers and every other donor, all on a level playing field. That’s what we’re doing now.”
Queensland currently caps donations for each person or entity at $4,800 for a political party plus $7,200 for its candidates, a total of $12,000 for each four-year term of parliament.
The new legislation will quadruple the limit by making it apply each year – allowing for donations of up to $19,200 a party and $28,800 for its candidates across four years, a total of $48,000. Frecklington said the new approach mirrored the one that applies at federal elections and in New South Wales.
Frecklington said the change would make it “a lot easier for someone that would wish to support a local candidate, for example, in year one of a four-year term. It would enable them to donate again in the fourth year.”
The Guardian has previously reported that many developers had lawfully got around Labor’s ban through loopholes such as companies established for nondevelopment purposes – but controlled by individuals with property development interests. More than $500,000 had been donated to the major parties, largely the LNP, before last year’s election.
Greens MP Michael Berkman said the bill was “a blatant move by the Crisafulli LNP government to line their own pockets with developer donations, legalising another avenue of corruption in Queensland”.
“Allowing developer donations can only benefit developers and the LNP, while everyone else is being priced out of a secure home,” he said.
Berkman said the state government could directly make decisions to the benefit of developers. Its Olympics-enabling legislation exempts games infrastructure, including residential development, from 15 laws including the Heritage Act and the Planning Act, and gives a state authority approval power without the right to appeal.
“This kind of quid pro quo, where the state will get donations from developers, [then] make decisions that directly benefit developer profits, it just stinks, and people need to see it for what it is,” Berkman said.
The shadow attorney general, Meaghan Scanlon, said the premier, David Crisafulli, “didn’t tell Queenslanders before the election that he planned to increase donation caps”.
“At a time when there should be less money and influence in politics, the LNP is giving the top end of town even more influence,” she said.
The legislation would also ban any person serving sentences of a year or longer in prison or detention from voting. At the moment, only those serving sentences of three years or longer are disenfranchised.
Frecklington also announced the appointment of former Queensland police officer Deborah Platz as the state’s new human rights commissioner, succeeding Scott McDougall, who criticised both sides of politics over a range of issues, particularly the state’s youth law and order crackdown.
Frecklington said Platz was “a champion for those less fortunate than all of us”.
