'Legalised bribery': Tasmanians in the dark on donations to federal political parties

It comes after the annual release of donations to federal political parties this week, including Tasmanian branches, which showed the identity of only about 5 per cent of donors for 2019/20.

Only donations above $14,300 need to be disclosed.

The Liberal Party of Australia's Tasmanian division received $1.9 million, of which $139,000 had the donor included.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The Labor Party's Tasmanian branch received $873,000 for 2019/20, with a combined $51,000 disclosed from the Health and Community Services Union and the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association.

The Australian Greens Tasmanian branch received $447,000, with donations above $1500 disclosed on the party's website.

Jacqui Lambie disclosed a selection of small private donors, of her $171,000 in donations.

The lack of knowledge of party donors has prompted the Greens to take further action, with Tasmanian senator Peter Whish-Wilson saying it was time for change.

"It's legalised bribery," he said.

"As a general rule, I don't see why corporations or industry would donate to a political party unless they want something in return. That generally involves changes to regulations, or contracts."

The Greens motion also includes banning donations from companies involved in tenders or grants, and real-time donation disclosure.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie said the system was "a joke", and planned to further raise her concerns in a speech in the Senate on Tuesday.

She said anything over $2500 should be disclosed.

Labor wants the threshold set at $1000 with disclosure within seven days.

Senator Helen Polley said the Australian public deserved to know who was financing political parties.

"And they should know before they vote, not many months later," she said.

"Labor believes it's time to start looking at expenditure caps in order to increase transparency, level the playing field, and reduce political parties' reliance on fundraising."

Note: an earlier version of this article included the Devonport Chamber of Commerce and Industry as a donor to the Liberal Party. This was instead a "return of funds paid to the wrong supplier in banking payment error"