As the Queensland election race passed the halfway mark, the state Liberal National party moved to rob Labor of one of its best attacks, putting to bed a donations issue which has plagued it for three years.
The LNP announced it has found the names of nearly all the donors who contributed a cumulative $100,000 which has been missing from its disclosure records since early 2015, when the then new-Labor government lowered the disclosure threshold to $1,000 – and made it retrospective.
But who made those donations has not been made public.
The LNP is still involved in a court proceeding with the Electoral Commission of Queensland over whether its federal candidates need comply with the state’s $1,000 disclosure limit, a matter due to be heard this month.
The state LNP has released correspondence between it and the commission from earlier this month, announcing it has found names for all but $4,650 of the $100,000 unattributed donations between January and June of 2014, the last year of the Newman government.
Queensland’s electoral commissioner has accepted the LNP has taken all necessary steps to meet its obligations. Tim Nicholls, the leader of the state opposition, said that had put the issue to bed.
“What has happened is the LNP has complied with all of the requirements of the Electoral Commission of Queensland,” he said. “They have issued a letter showing that what Labor has been talking about has been more of the fear, smear and no idea.”
The LNP was forced to hunt for its donors after the Palaszczuk government, in one of its first acts, reversed the disclosure threshold from $12,800 to $1,000 as part of its transparency campaign.
Since then, Labor has raised the missing donors as an ongoing attack against the LNP and, shortly before calling the election, moved to provide “further transparency” to the Queensland system by introducing real-time donations.
The quicker system caused a moment of embarrassment for the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, on Sunday after it was revealed that PwC, the firm of her partner, Shaun Drabsch, had donated $2,058 to the Labor party on the same day Palaszczuk was announcing a conflict of interest involving Drabsch’s work.
Palaszczuk vetoed approving any funds from the federal government’s northern Australia infrastructure facility for the Adani railway line proposal on 3 November, after it was revealed Drabsch’s firm was involved in putting together the loan application.
That same day PwC disclosed its donation in the form of catering for an event hosted by the education and tourism minister, Kate Jones.
Palaszczuk said she was not aware of the donation and would talk to the party secretary about the issue, as she attempts to reset her campaign by distancing it from the Adani issue which plagued the first two weeks.
“That’s the first I have heard about it,” she said. “But I will say one thing, it’s disclosed.”
The real-time disclosure log also revealed Pauline Hanson was paid just under $24,000 to buy a van for One Nation, with the majority of the party’s donations seemingly coming from candidate’s fees.
