Article-Donations discovery; Parties rolling in cash
The Mercury | 2 February 2024; pgs 1 & 6.
Donations discovery; Parties rolling in cash
David Killick
The Tasmanian Liberals have retained their title as the most lavishly funded of the state’s political parties – but voters remain in the dark about exactly who is paying for our politicians.
State-based donations disclosure laws passed through parliament last year, but are yet to come into effect.
It means federal disclosure regimen remains in place and the vast bulk of donations will remain secret. The threshold for disclosing the source of donations in the 2022-23 financial year is $15,200.
The Tasmanian Liberals have retained their title as the most lavishly funded of the state’s political parties, but voters remain in the dark about exactly who is paying for our politicians.
State-based electoral donations disclosure laws passed through parliament last year, but are yet to come into effect.
It means the federal disclosure regimen remains in place and the vast bulk of donations will remain secret. The threshold for disclosing the source of donations in the 2022-23 financial year is $15,200.
The Liberal Party received $2,534,093 in 2022-23 and declared the sources of $593,827 of that money. Those receipts included $295,894 from the party’s national branch, $100,000 from the Gatenby Investment Fund and $22,000 from Google. The source of the remaining $1.9m was not required to be declared by law.
The Tasmanian Labor Party’s returns revealed just two payments of more than $15,200, one from the Australian Electoral Commission for $22,000 and $16,315 from the SDA – the union for retail, warehousing and fast food workers. The party received a total of $1,024,757 for the financial year and declared the source of just $38,315.
The Tasmanian Greens return revealed the party received six payments from the Australian Greens, for a total of $327,764. The documents disclosed total receipts of $456,596.
The Greens also voluntarily disclose all donations of more than $1500 on their website.
The Jacqui Lambie Network declared receipts of $296,213 for the year, mostly made up of $149,419 from the Australian Electoral Commission.
And federal member for Clark Andrew Wilkie declared $1435 worth of donations. The Local Network declared none.
The new state laws contain two significant reforms: the establishment of a disclosure regime for donations of more than $5000 and public funding for election campaigns.
Independent MLC for Nelson Meg Webb called on the state government to enact the laws.
“In light of the unacceptable amount of undisclosed political donations in Tasmania highlighted via today’s federal annual returns, Premier Jeremy Rockliff must guarantee that public funding of House of Assembly election campaigns will not commence under the state’s new Electoral Disclosure and Funding Act until the donations disclosure regime is also in place,” she said.
“Once again, the release of the federal annual returns highlights the secrecy and opacity shrouding political donations, which a rigorous statebased disclosure system should expose.
“I challenge Premier Jeremy Rockliff to publicly guarantee that the new State Electoral Disclosure and Funding Act’s sections that provide taxpayer funding of Lower House election campaigns will not officially commence until the new donations disclosure regime is enacted as law.”
