Political funding in Australia

After each election, the Australian Electoral Commission distributes a set amount of money to each political party, per vote received.

Ministers and staff are enlisted to engage with donors and business supporters, with the aim of raising funds for their political parties.

The Australian Electoral Commission reported in February 2006 that Ashcroft (who gave his address as "House of Lords, Westminster, London") had donated $1 million to the Liberal Party in September 2004, shortly before the 2004 federal election.

[11] The Australian Labor Party is the main beneficiary of trade union affiliation fees, special levies and donations.

[3] In the 2013 Election, the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union CFMEU donated $50,000 to the Greens party in the ACT.

A candidate or Senate group is eligible for election funding if they obtain at least 4% of the first preference vote in the division or the state or territory they contested.

The amount payable is calculated by multiplying the number of first preference (i.e., primary) votes received by the rate of payment applicable at the time.

The disclosure scheme was introduced to increase overall transparency and inform the public about the financial dealings of political parties, candidates and others involved in the electoral process.

The change allowed corporations to secretly donate up to $90,000 spread across the national and the eight state/territory branches of political parties without public disclosure of that funding.

[3][27] In 2007, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library estimated this disclosure change will increase the number of non-disclosed political donations from 25% to 36%.

Such a device may, for example, be an exorbitantly priced lunch or dinner, or structured as a business meeting with a minister, or it may be an expensive advertisement in an association's magazine.

[3] Front organisations provide individuals and corporations a means of passing funds to the major parties anonymously or to avoid the tax deductibility limits of political donations.

The Fadden Forum is a fundraising entity of the Queensland Liberal National Party controlled by MP Stuart Robert.

[36] Another similar entity said to occupy a "grey area" is the Conservative Leadership Foundation, set up in 2009 by Senator Cory Bernardi in Adelaide, South Australia.

[37] An associated entity called Millennium Forum raised political donations for the NSW branch of the Liberal Party.

[38] It has also been alleged that Mafia figures donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Millennium Forum, as part of an ultimately successful campaign to allow a known criminal to stay in Australia.

It was revealed before the 2016 federal election that each Liberal MP pays a company called Parakeelia $2,500 a year from their taxpayer-funded office allowances to use software that collates constituent information.

[42] Unlike the Liberals, Labor has contracted an external private provider, Magenta Linas, to perform the same function, but there is no flow back to the party.

[3] Former Qantas chief, John Menadue, said: Corporate donations are a major threat to our political and democratic system, whether it be state governments fawning before property developers, the Prime Minister providing ethanol subsidies to a party donor, or the immigration minister using his visa clientele to tap into ethnic money.

[6]Political researchers Sally Young and Joo-Cheong Tham from the Australian National University concluded: There is inadequate transparency of funding.

[3]Some critics say Australia should follow the example of the United Kingdom, where corporate donors must disclose their political donations in the company's annual report to shareholders.

[6][44] Some point to the success New Zealand has had, limiting the amount of money that political parties can spend on their election campaigns.

"[45] Under a proposal launched by Shadow Federal Treasurer Malcolm Turnbull in January 2008, only individuals who are Australian citizens or on the Electoral Roll would be eligible to donate to political parties, and must declare the money came from their own funds.

Turnbull said that the democratic system was not working properly when there is such a disparity between the amount of political donations a government can raise compared to the opposition.

[47] The Director-General of ASIO, Duncan Lewis, stated that Chinese political donors could be channels to advance Beijing's interests.

[50] Shortly afterwards, the Coalition government announced plans to ban foreign donations to Australian political parties and activist groups.

[54] On 27 June 2007, the New South Wales Legislative Council established a committee to investigate electoral and political party funding.

[60] In Victoria during the year 2001–2002, the Victorian Labor Party received $7.2 million in political donations, with trade unions, gaming companies and property developers on the list of donors.