The Liberal/Nationals

In the last decade, the Liberal and National Parties have taken over $160 million from corporations.

This money has come from some of our most powerful businesses, like Westpac and Woodside, and our most influential industries, like property developers, professional lobbyists and the coal and gas industry.

 
These companies donate for a reason: favourable policy decisions. While the major parties continue to take money from big corporate interests, they will never be completely focused on what is good for Australian communities.

These are the industries seeking to influence the policy decisions of the Liberal and National parties:

Fossil Fuel Industry

in FY2022
LNP:$ 1,089,570

Developers and Property Industry

in FY2022
LNP:$ 3,295,646

Banking and Finance Industry

in FY2022
LNP:$ 6,262,174

Pharmaceutical Corporations

in FY2022
LNP:$ 355,500

Gambling - Tobacco - Alcohol

in FY2022
LNP:$ 1,006,929

Defence Industry

in FY2022
LNP:$ 273,800

Corporate $$ from the last decade:

html_name_iconValuevalue_M
Banking and Finance Industry86,510,41186.5
Developers and Property Industry34,540,75034.5
Energy and Resource Companies23,664,32623.7
Consultancies and Law Firms20,294,18820.3
Gambling - Tobacco - Alcohol19,336,67019.3
Pharma & Private Health Industry18,004,89018.0
Manufacturing and Heavy Industry15,153,36115.2

html_name_iconValuevalue_M
Media and Communications13,456,65013.5
Services & Retail Sector13,396,89513.4
Food and Agriculture9,371,1369.4
Lobbying Firms7,170,2847.2
Education1,953,9282.0
Defence & Weapons Industry1,803,8081.8
Uncategorised Company1,650,6071.7

Cumulative totals to Coalition between FY2013–FY2022 (Liberal and National Parties, state and federal)

And then there’s the dark money…

As much as 55% of donations to political parties are not disclosed. In FY22, the source of around $119 million remains hidden.

Without reforms to require disclosure of this ‘dark money’, we don’t know who’s paying the big parties’ bills.

Loopholes in our donations laws allow the major parties to claim money received as “other receipts”, because it isn’t a ‘gift’, it is a contractual exchange such as a $10,000 a head ‘business lunch’ with lobbyists and industry.

Major parties employ sneaky tactics to hide the source of donations – like using a political front group (like Labor’s ‘1973 Foundation’) to host fundraising events. The corporate donor pays the front group and the front group then pays the political party to “wash the donations” and hide the influential donor.

Our lax donation laws allow donors to split donations between state and federal entities below the $14,500 donation cap.

That means over $100,000 can be donated each year without disclosure. If it’s below the disclosure limit, then the AEC has no legal power to investigate it.

Liberal/Nationals’ last decade of corporate donors:

Cumulative totals to Coalition FY2013-FY2022 (Liberal and National Parties, state and federal). Explore and filter the raw AEC data ›
Banking and Finance category can include interest earned from investments and term deposits