Political donations again kept secret by Tasmania’s Liberal, Labor, Greens parties

Adam Langenberg | ABC Online | 2 February 2022 

The latest “disclosure” of Tasmania’s political party donations was actually anything but.

People looking for clarity about where the island’s political parties get their funding from would have been sorely disappointed, with staggeringly little details declared.

The Tasmanian Liberal Party branch disclosed where just $260,000 of the $3.4 million it received came from.

That equates to just 7.6 per cent and is by far the lowest rate of any Liberal branch around the country. 

On the other side of the political aisle, the ALP’s Tasmanian branch declared the source of 15.4 per cent of its funding.

The next worst state ALP branch is South Australia, where 26 per cent of donations were declared. 

They’re dreary figures that highlight what Tasmanians have known for years, that the state has the weakest electoral laws in the country.

The state has no political donation restrictions of its own, and rather is governed by Commonwealth regulations.

There are long waits for little clarity — only donations over $14,300 need to be declared annually.

What is known about the donations

Of the $260,000 declared by the Tasmanian Liberal Party in 2020-21, $50,0000 came from businessman Anthony Pratt’s company Pratt Holdings, $22,000 from New South Wales home builder MJH Group and the same amount from student accommodation builder Scape Australia. 

The party also received $50,000, declared during last year’s election campaign, from a “Richard Smith”, with an address registered in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs.

The Tasmanian Labor Party received more than half its declared donations from an individual named “Erin Bromfield”, who donated $103,750.

1/2/23 NOTE: Erin Bromfield’s donation to the Tasmanian Labor Party in the 2020-21 financial year came as a result of her administering the estate of her late aunt and former staffer, Sharon Carnes.

The party also received funding from the Health and Community Services Union, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association and Sky Bus Australia. 

The Tasmanian Greens received a $54,497 bequest from the estate of Elspeth Hope-Johnstone, an artist, education leader, environmental campaigner and former commissioner at the ABC. 

They declared where 25 per cent of their donations came from.

Reform coming, we are told

The push for donation reform gathered plenty of steam after the 2018 state election campaign, where the gaming lobby waged war against the Labor Party’s plan to ban poker machines from pubs and clubs.

Billboards and media advertisements funded by pro-gaming interests popped up everywhere, and the Liberal Party benefited too.

They received $270,000 from the Tasmanian Hospitality Association and Australian Hotels Association, as well as $50,000 from casino operator Federal Group.

During that campaign, then-premier Will Hodgman committed to a review of electoral donation laws.

That review eventually recommended the threshold be reduced to somewhere between $1,000 and $5,000 and donations disclosed more regularly, but when Tasmanians went to the polls last year, they did so under the old system.

Premier Peter Gutwein called the election before tabling new legislation but pledged his party would voluntarily disclose donations over $5,000 within two days during the state election campaign.

The Tasmanian government said the wait for reform is nearly over, with new legislation proposing a $5,000 donation threshold set to be introduced in Parliament this year.

A government spokeswoman said the Bill, which will see donations disclosed every six months, “will increase transparency and fairness and is the right thing to do to ensure that the public continues to have faith in the outcomes of elections”.

Independent MLC Meg Webb said change was needed urgently.

“Tasmania has waited long enough for real-time and meaningful transparency over who pays what to whom. These AEC returns provide thousands of reasons for urgent state action,” she said.

The government said it was taking its time to get the legislation right, giving no guarantees that Tasmania would not still be lagging behind the rest of country when next year’s data was released.

Read Meg’s Submission to the Electoral Disclosure and Funding Bill 2021 Exposure Draft

See more of Meg’s recent media.