Only about 13% of the total income to the major political parties is actually transparently attributed to identifiable donors.

That’s what Belinda Edwards, an academic and former economic adviser in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet told the select committee looking into the opaque world of the political influence of donations, on Monday. The remainder is mostly undisclosed or placed behind the blurred filter of “other receipts”. 

Edwards, also a former press gallery journalist, mentions in her submission the difficulty facing journos, researchers or the public trying to unpick that information that actually is available: 

“The AEC data presents a number of challenges that can make it difficult to get a grasp of what is occurring the political donations landscape. There are thousands of lines of data, with limited means to sort or categorize the data. The aggregates that can be easily calculated are not meaningful. The AEC does not make any attempt to analyse aggregates and trends in the data. This means that journalists and those seeking to report on political donations matters struggle to piece together meaningful perspectives within the resources available to them.”

She concludes (and she’s not the first) that the system is “broken”. So where can we go to find out what money is coming into parties and politicians, and where it comes from?

Democracy for Sale

The project (initiated by Greens senator Lee Rhiannon) expands of the concept of “other receipts”: 

“‘Donations’ are defined narrowly by the AEC as simple gifts whereas ‘other receipts’ include all other money received by the party — interest from bank accounts, insurance claims paid to the party, sponsorship of party functions and organisations, money received from fundraising dinners, raffle tickets sold at events, etc. This is a major loophole in the current legislation. There is no legal obligation for parties to accurately classify the money they receive each year … parties and candidates can declare money they receive and then spend on their election campaign as an ‘other receipt’. Also the AEC sets out in their guidelines that money received at fundraisers is to be classified by parties as ‘other receipts’.”

The site has aggregated all receipts from the AEC since 1998 and allows users to search for specific donors, receipt type and category in that time.

Michael West

Fairfax’s former senior business reporter Michael West has produced an exhaustive piece his blog, commissioned by activist group GetUp, focusing on the lobbying efforts of on the power of the 20 peak lobbying groups in Australian politics. This includes a section — based on the work of Democracy for Sale — breaking down the most generous industries and corporations for donations to major parties. He found: 

  • Revenue of the 20 peak lobbying groups surpassed $1.94 billion over the past three years.
  • Besides funding advocacy via their peak bodies, large corporations also have “in-house” government relations capabilities and communications teams whose role is to effect political outcomes.
  • Many large corporations also hire specialist government relations consultancy firms to lobby. This spending may sometimes be claimed as tax deductible.

ABC

The ABC produced an extensive data map earlier this year, charting donations from individuals, corporations, peak bodies and unions to all political parties across 2015-2016. They encouraged their readers to interrogate the data themselves, and add to and clarify it if possible.

Crikey readers who know more credible places that analyse who is filling the coffers of our political parties are encouraged to get in touch.