Tasmanian political donations revealed

The Liberals did not declare where $3 million in donations came from because they were below the reportable threshold of $13,800.

The Australian Electoral Commission’s annual disclosures showed that in the period which included the March 2018 election, the Liberals received nearly four times that of the Labor Party who got $1,128, 447 and nearly 10 times that of the Greens who received $424,806 in donations.

The release of the disclosures has reignited the row over Tasmania’s political donation disclosure laws which Labor and the Greens say are the worst in Australia.

It has also prompted the national Alliance for Gambling Reform to call for a ban on political donations by licenced gambling operators

Premier Will Hodgman reiterated that the government had initiated a comprehensive review of the state’s electoral law.

“Tasmanians should not be fooled by the absurd claims from those that were not successful at the election,” Mr Hodgman said.

“We have initiated a comprehensive review of the state’s electoral law and encourage all Tasmanians with an interest to participate in the consultation that is currently underway.”

Labor’s legal spokeswoman Ella Haddad said Tasmanians would never know the source of more than $3 million in donations to the Liberal Party during the election campaign.

“Tasmania has some of the worst transparency in the nation around political donations,” Ms Haddad said.

“Until third parties are required to declare how much they spend during Tasmanian elections the public will never know who is paying for influence in the electoral process.”

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said there was a lack of transparency around political donations.

“There’s a whole lot of dark money that isn’t known about that hasn’t been declared,” she said,

“It’s no secret vast sums of corporate money were funnelled in to supporting the Liberals via third parties, such as the dishonest ‘Love your Local’ campaign.”

The AEC returns showed that Liberal donors included the Tasmanian Hospitality Association, $160,000, Kalis Hospitality, $70,000, Goodstone Group, $80,000, Federal Group, $50,000, EBC Leisure, $44,000 and Zest in Launceston $118,159.

In 2014 the THA donated $20,000 to the Liberals.

Labor’s biggest donors in 2017-18 were all unions including the CFMEU, $146,425 and HACSU, $44,260.

Liberal Party director Sam McQuestin said the AEC figures should “end once and for all the pathetic claims from Labor and the Greens that they were ‘robbed’ of the last election”.

“More than 85 per cent of contributions received by the Liberal Party had nothing to do with gaming related interests,” he said.

Labor Party state secretary Stuart Benson said Labor believed the current disclosure laws needed “serious reform”.

“The Labor Party has been arguing for reform regarding political disclosure at both the state and federal level  for some time,” Mr Benson said.

THA chief executive Steve Old said the AEC figures showed the THA donated $269,750 to the Liberals.

He said there had been a dishonest campaign claiming the THA “bankrolled the Liberal Party in Tasmania to the tune of $5 million”.

“The THA makes no apology for standing up for its members and the jobs of those they employ during the 2018 State Election campaign,” Mr Old said.

“We are proud to have represented our members, many of whom are family run businesses who employ many thousands of people in Tasmania.”

Gambling reform Tim Costello said Australia would not begin to address the world’s worst levels of gambling harm until the political funding tap was “completely turned off”.

He said the pokies industry “effectively bought the election by spending millions defeating Labor’s plan to remove pokies”.