The donation from the influential lobby group for pharmacy owners was registered with the Australian Electoral Commission on July 31, 2020, and revealed on Tuesday as part of annual disclosures.

On August 4 of that year, the Marshall government unveiled the emergency fund for community pharmacies impacted by COVID-19.

At the time the initiative was welcomed as having been developed “in collaboration with the Guild”.

Pharmacy Regulation Authority SA was tasked with overseeing the program.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia followed up with another $3000 donation to the SA branch of the Liberals on October 20, 2020.

InDaily is not suggesting that the Pharmacy Guild of Australia broke any disclosure rules or that donations were linked to collaboration on developing the fund.

Announcing the $200,000 pharmacy emergency support initiative in 2020, SA Minister for Health and Wellbeing Stephen Wade said that the funding would be used to maintain critical pharmacy services when the impact of COVID-19 on a pharmacy at short notice threatened its closure.

“By ensuring our pharmacies can remain open, we will help to reduce demand and attendance at our public hospitals and emergency departments,” he said.

A representative of the SA Branch of the Pharmacy Guild told InDaily that there was no connection with the emergency fund, and the $12,000 donation was a payment the organisation made each year to both major SA parties as part of a policy to obtain political access to engage on pharmacy-related issues.

The AEC donor page does not list a payment in 2020-21 for the SA branch of the Labor party, although payments were made to other Labor state branches.

“The Pharmacy Guild of Australia fully complies with disclosure regulations,” a spokesperson for the national Pharmacy Guild of Australia body told InDaily.

The Centre for Public Integrity said that the current disclosure system resulted in donations being revealed in a haphazard and delayed fashion to the public.

In South Australia, donors must lodge a return with the SA Electoral Commissioner if they have made a donation of more than $5000.

Under federal rules, amounts below $14,300 do not require disclosure of details of gifts and donations.

Neither donation, which together total $15,000, was listed on the AEC page for the SA Liberal party’s donor receipts that form the basis of most media reporting on donations, but were included in a list of donor returns filed by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.

InDaily has contacted Wade’s office for comment.

“The correlation between any single donation and single government action is difficult to determine,” Centre for Public Integrity executive director Han Aulby told InDaily.

“But donations are part of how to build up relationships, access and influence.”

Aulby noted that because national rules are so loose, they risk undermining stricter state rules,  allowing for inconsistency in disclosure of party donations.

The Centre for Public Integrity is calling for a range of reforms, including real time disclosure of all donations above $1000.

“It is not about saying one causes the other, but saying donations are part of this network of influence and access, so when the public is left unaware of donations for up to 18 months, people are left questioning what influence they have,” Aulby said.

“If there is nothing to hide, why not disclose any donation over $1000?”