The biggest political donations of the 2023/24 financial year have been revealed, as the Government looks to change how this data is released.
Only donations larger than $16,300 have been disclosed, and the data is released annually.
Awould require donations over $1,000 to be published monthly.
The Opposition withdrew its support for the Government’s bill late last year, meaning it’s stalled in Parliament.
Current rules
Currently, there are no caps on political donations, meaning a person or entity can donate an unlimited amount to a political campaign.
The disclosure threshold for 2023/24 was $16,300, increasing to $16,900 for the 2024/25 financial year.
Disclosures take place in one of two instances: either 24 weeks after an election, or an annual report in February showing the total donations of an individual or organisation for the previous financial year.
AEC data
On Monday, the election regulator – the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) – published the financial disclosures for the 2023/24 financial year.
At the federal level,received $1.36 million in disclosable donations.
Thereceived $1.29 million in donations, while thereceived $445,000.
Paper company Visy’s billionaire chair Anthony Pratt donated $1 million to the Labor Party, making him the largest individual donor to a major party last year.
Fellow Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting gave around $500,000 to the Coalition.
‘Teal’ MPs Dr Monique Ryan ($680,000) and Allegra Spender ($570,000) reported the largest donation tallies of independents.
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The Government proposed changes to the laws covering political donations last year. Under the changes, individual donation gifts would be capped at $20,000 per candidate per year.
The threshold for disclosure would also drop to $1,000.
Disclosures would occur every month and would increase in frequency once an election campaign begins.
If it had passed last year, the legislation would have come into effect in mid-2026— bypassing the upcoming federal election due by 17 May.
Legislation
Laborin the second-last sitting week of 2024, expecting it would pass before the year’s end.
While the reforms passed through the House of Representatives (lower house), they did not make it through the Senate, where the government doesn’t have a majority.
Over the past few months, the Labor Minister responsible for the reforms – Senator Don Farrell – has been trying to strike a deal with the Coalition and crossbenchers to get enough support.
The electoral reforms are scheduled to be debated in the Senate over the next sitting fortnight.
It’s not clear whether the Government has gained enough support for the reforms to pass.
Australia Institute democracy director Bill Browne said: “The mass release of political donations data highlights the lack of transparency and integrity in Australian politics.”
However, he criticised the Government’s current reforms, saying it amounts to “politicians voting together to give political parties more money”.
Greens
Greens Senator Larissa Waters said today’s disclosures showed the need to introduce meaningful reform.
“We urgently need real-time donations disclosure so the public can see who is buying influence in the lead up to the federal election, not 20 months afterwards,“ Waters said.
The Greens voted against the Government’s bill, saying it doesn’t go far enough to curb the influence of major corporations in politics.
