Calls For ‘Real-Time Disclosure’ of Political Donations to Improve Transparency

People cast their votes in Melbourne, Australia, on May 21, 2022. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

An Australian think tank has called on the federal government to implement a real-time disclosure system for political donations to deal with the lack of transparency and integrity in Australian Politics.

This comes as the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has released data on donations made to political parties and politicians in the 2022-2023 financial year.

According to the Australia Institute, there were “flaws” in the current disclosure system that make it take 18 months for some donation data to be released.

The Institute also pointed out that the annual mass “dumping” of information by the AEC caused significant difficulties for voters, journalists, and community organisations to hold politicians and political parties accountable for the donations they received.

“Today’s mass release of political donations data highlights the lack of transparency and integrity in Australian politics,” said Bill Browne, Director of the Australia Institute’s Democracy and Accountability Program.

“We are learning today whether businesses made political donations 18 months ago. These lags and other loopholes make it difficult to see how politicians and political parties are being funded—and by whom.”

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Another transparency issue was the disclosure threshold of $15,000 (US$9,800), which prevented any donation below that amount from being disclosed.

The Institute said donors could circumvent the restriction by splitting their contributions into multiple amounts.

In addition, there was a lack of transparency in the “other receipts” category as it encompassed many types of payments, such as corporate membership fees, affiliation fees, levies on MPs and staffers, dividends, and so on.

Reform Proposals

The Institute put forward a number of proposals to strengthen the disclosure system.

A key proposal was the implementation of real-time donation disclosure for politicians and political parties.

At the same time, the Institute suggested the government lower the donation disclosure threshold and change the definition of “gift” to ensure it met community’s transparency expectations.

Other proposals included making ministerial diaries public to reveal potential connections between political contributions and political access, as well as legislating truth in political advertising laws.

An analysis by the Centre for Public Integrity revealed that election spending reached a record high of $440 million in 2022.

Furthermore, the top 5 percent of donors accounted for 82 percent of all contributions, up from 41 percent in the 2005-2006 financial year.

The average amount an independent candidate spent to win their seat also jumped 10 times from $106,055 in 2001 to over $1.1 million in 2022.

Top Political Donors in 2022-2023

According to the latest data, mining billionaire Clive Palmer was among the top political donors in 2022-2023, contributing over $7 million to the United Australia Party–the political party he founded via his mining company Mineralogy.

Climate 200, a company that provided funding to “Teal” political candidates, donated nearly $6 million and received $8.3 million during the 2022 federal election.

Energy trader and environmental advocate Marcus Catsaras was among the top donors to Climate 200 with his $1 million contribution in May 2023, followed by share trader Rob Keldoulis, who made a number of personal donations worth $702,113 between October 22 and May 2023.

Large consulting firms also made significant political donations in the previous financial year.

PwC, which was embroiled in a scandal over the leak of the federal government’s confidential information in 2023, donated $369,973 to several political parties between July 2022 and May 2023.

Meanwhile, EY donated $227,853, followed by Deloitte ($177,126) and KPMG ($163,200).