With electoral reforms legislation passing the lower house on Wednesday night, it’s probably a good time for a reminder of the original impetus for caps on political donations.
In this chart we’re showing all political donations declared by parties or individual politicians (see the note below about the data for more information), grouped by financial year, and then classified as either coming from Clive Palmer or a Clive Palmer-owned company (Clive, in red), and donations that don’t involve Clive Palmer (Not Clive, in blue):
It’s as clear as a giant yellow billboard that one person has had an outsized spend in politics since the 2013 election. It is questionable how much actual political influence this gave Palmer, but he was most successful in 2013 with three Senate spots for the Palmer United Party, and one lower house seat won by Palmer himself.
Following that, he spent big on an anti-Labor advertising campaign in the 2019 election, although his party didn’t win any seats or Senate spots.
