Major parties’ financial disclosures were riddled with errors including a $1m transaction omitted by the Nationals, and the Liberals incorrectly identifying donors, according to compliance reviews.
The Australian Electoral Commission’s reviews for 2018-19 picked up errors across the political spectrum, including a total of $1m in donations to Queensland Labor by Labor Holdings Pty Ltd mislabelled as “other receipt”.
The outcomes of the reviews have come under new scrutiny after the revelation a fundraising body for independent MP Zali Steggall’s campaign received a $100,000 donation from the family trust of former coal company director John Kinghorn. The AEC found the money was not properly declared.
The AEC found three transactions to the National Party of Australia were not disclosed, one of which required an amendment to declare a $1m “other receipt” from John McEwen House Pty Ltd.
The Nationals’ federal director, Jonathan Hawkes, defended the error, stating the amount “was clearly identified as not being a donation”.
“It was an internal financial transaction as a result of a restructure of the party’s administration,” he said.
“The Nationals have always and will continue to abide by all legislative and regulatory requirements under the Commonwealth Electoral Act.”
The Liberal Party of Australia misidentified a number of donors, including:
A total of $418,990 in donations and other receipts from the Liberal party (WA division) Inc, originally attributed to the Cormann LP Campaign Committee.
A $20,000 donation from Michael Siddle, originally attributed to Ramsay Health Care Australia.
A $20,000 other receipt from Graham Burke, originally attributed to Village Roadshow Ltd.
A spokesperson for the Liberal party said the AEC had “previously accepted” use of references to the Cormann Campaign Committee “to describe payments from party subunits”.
“As part of this review the AEC requested that the relevant state division be listed instead,” the spokesperson said.
“The changes in relation to Mr Siddle and Mr Burke clarify that these payments were received from the two individuals, not from the companies they represented.
“The Liberal party fully complies with Australia’s funding and disclosure regime. Unlike so-called ‘independents’, the Liberal party doesn’t say one thing and then do another.”
The South Australian Liberal party omitted then updated their disclosure to add a $16,000 donation from the Ahrens Group and $25,000 from the Australian Hotels Association federal office.
It also revised up the value of an “other receipt” from weapons-maker Raytheon from $25,000 to $65,000.
The $100,000 donation made to Steggall’s Warringah campaign from the Kinghorn Family Trust has been weaponised by her political opponents, with Liberal MPs facing challenges from independent campaigns, including Dave Sharma and Tim Wilson, accusing her of hypocrisy.
Steggall has defended the receipt of eight individual pledges from a “large family living in [her] electorate”. The individual pledges were originally claimed to be under the $13,800 disclosure threshold, but the review found they should be considered as one payment of $100,000 from the trust.
“If you ruled out taking donations from anyone who has invested in coal at one time or another, you pretty much rule out everyone as most people have through their superannuation,” Steggall said in a statement.
On Friday Steggall continued to defend the handling of the donation, posting on social media: “I never tried to hide it.”
Steggall also complained about a disproportionate focus on Warringah Independent Ltd, suggesting that a Nine newspaper story about the Nationals was timed for “a non sitting Friday with huge front page visibility”.
In other 2018-19 compliance reviews, the New South Wales Greens were forced to add payments from Integro Insurance Brokers Ltd and the NSW electoral commission, and a donation of $20,600 from the Australian Greens.
As a result of its audit, GetUp added other receipts from the Nature Conservation Council of NSW ($24,670) and Solar Citizens ($31,765).
The Business Council of Australia added $727,374 of receipts from entities including KKR AUS, JB Hi-Fi Group and Goldman Sachs.
As first reported by Nine newspapers, Peninsula Independent Ltd, which aimed to elect former Liberal Julia Banks in Greg Hunt’s seat of Flinders, added a $25,000 other receipt from Alex Turnbull, the son of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Turnbull told Nine the issue was a misunderstanding over who should have lodged the information with the AEC in 2019. “Sometimes people forget paperwork,” he reportedly said.
