Property developers have made significant financial contributions to both major South Australian political parties in the run into this year's state and federal elections.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has published political party disclosure returns for the previous financial year.
They show the SA Liberal Party brought in $4.1 million in the 12 months to June 30, 2021, compared with $2.17 million by the SA branch of the Labor Party over the same period.
The holding company of the firm behind the Festival Plaza redevelopment, Walker Corporation, gave the SA division of the Liberal Party $50,000 during the AEC's reporting period.
It is unclear exactly when the donation was made during the financial year.
Last November, the state government announced it had reached a new agreement with Walker Corporation for the Festival Plaza redevelopment which included increasing the number of floors in the office tower currently under construction at the site between Parliament House and the Festival Theatre to 29 storeys.
The deal also extended Walker's lease terms for the car park, office tower and retail complex from 68 years to 99 years.
Pelligra Group, which purchased the old Holden factory at Elizabeth and recently joined the Adelaide Crows in a failed bid to build a new base in Brompton, contributed $59,150 to Liberal coffers.
Long-term Liberal donor Sally Zou gave $44,422 to the party via two separate entities — Transcendent Australia Pty Ltd and MSZ Australia Romance.
While the donations were revealed by the AEC's disclosure scheme, they were not reported to the Electoral Commission of South Australia (ECSA), which runs a separate, more transparent scheme for donations to state political parties.
Under that scheme, all donations of $5,000 or more must be disclosed within 30 days.
State Liberal Party director Sascha Meldrum said federal donations were not required to be disclosed under the state scheme.
"The Liberal Party does not accept funds that are donated subject to political conditions of any kind," Ms Meldrum said in a statement.
Union and developer cash for Labor
The AEC's data shows the biggest donor to the Australian Labor Party's SA branch last financial year was $180,000 from the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association, the union which represents retail workers.
At a state level, documents lodged with the ECSA revealed SA Labor had received $200,000 since November from companies linked to builder and developer Gordon Pickard.
A donation of $140,000 was received on November 8, followed by another $60,000 on January 10.
Less than a fortnight later, Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas announced that if elected in March, he would move to ban donations to political parties for future elections.
"This is something I believe to be right. I want to ban donations from political parties and their campaigns," he said last Tuesday.
"Union donations, business donations, I don't care where it comes from. I think it's better if our politics is removed from that."
State ALP secretary Reggie Martin said SA had increased transparency so voters could see who had donated to candidates or parties before they cast their vote.
"The Labor Party is proud of the reforms we introduced, and fully complies with the reporting requirements, which now include weekly returns in the lead up to the election," he said in a statement.
The powerful hotel lobby has recently donated to former state Liberal MP turned independent Dan Cregan.
The ECSA's donation portal showed he received $10,000 from the Australian Hotels Association on December 8, 2021.
Mr Cregan was instated as House of Assembly Speaker after his departure from the Liberal Party last year.
He is looking to be re-elected as an independent in his Adelaide Hills electorate of Kavel.
