Advertisement

Turnbull’s Liberal donation remains secret

Malcolm Turnbull’s personal donation to the Liberal Party during last year’s federal election won’t be known for another year.

Feb 01, 2017, updated Feb 01, 2017
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Photo: AAP

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Photo: AAP

The Australian Electoral Commission today released the political funding disclosures for the 2015/16 financial year.

However, Turnbull’s donation – rumoured to be around $1 million – to a cash-strapped Liberal Party during the campaign was not in the figures.

A spokesman for the prime minister said the donation would be declared within the rules by the Liberal Party organisation. It’s possible the donation was received after June 30, pushing its disclosure out to early 2018.

The South Australian branches of the major parties also disclosed their 2015/16 funding.

The local branch of the Labor Party collected just over $2 million, mostly from unions. The biggest single donor was the local branch of the “Shoppies” union, which handed over $100,000, followed another union, United Voice, which donated $40,000.  (Go here for the full list.)

The local Liberals more than doubled Labor’s efforts, raking in nearly $5 million from a wide spread of individual and corporate donors.

The biggest single donation to the Liberals was from the Broken Hill based Aus Gold Mining Group, which donated $360,000. Businessman Robert Gerard donated $83,400, while Ian Wall and Pam Wall of Springfield both donated $81,000. (Go here for the full list.)

Labor leader Bill Shorten on Tuesday said the Opposition would support an overhaul of donation rules, including lowering the disclosure threshold to $1000.

The AEC figures showed the Liberals received $80.2 million over the year while Labor received $61 million.

Mining magnate Paul Marks, a friend of former prime minister Tony Abbott, was the biggest single donor to the Liberal Party, contributing $1.4 million.

The private company of the Pratt family gave $790,000.

Former cabinet minister Ian Macfarlane donated nearly $70,000 to the Liberal-National Party in Queensland while Immigration Minister Peter Dutton gave $50,000.

Another cabinet minister, Simon Birmingham, donated $20,000 to the Liberal Party’s federal division.

Australian-Chinese property billionaire Chau Chak Wing gave $530,000 to Liberal coffers and $150, 000 to Labor through his Hong Kong-based investment company.

Village Roadshow was the single biggest donor to the Labor Party, contributing $257,000, although that is less than the $325,000 it gave to the Liberals.

Graeme Wood, founder of the travel website Wotif, donated $630,000 to the Greens and $6000 to the Queensland branch of the ALP.

Pauline Hanson loaned $155,000 to her One Nation party and donated a further $35,000.

– AAP with additional reporting by InDaily staff

Local News Matters
Advertisement
Copyright © 2024 InDaily.
All rights reserved.