Zali Steggall defends $100,000 donation from coal investor, saying ‘most people have through super’

Independent MP Zali Steggall says the eight individual donation pledges in question had come from a ‘large family living in my electorate’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Independent federal MP Zali Steggall has defended a $100,000 donation from the family trust of former coal company director John Kinghorn which the Australian Electoral Commission found was not properly declared to comply with disclosure laws.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Monday that a compliance review undertaken by the AEC found that a $100,000 donation made to Steggall’s Warringah campaign from the Kinghorn Family Trust was split into eight separate donations that were under the disclosure threshold of $13,800.