The ACT Electoral Commission is investigating the reporting of a donation of $2.5 million from the Canberra Labor Club to the Labor Party's 1973 Foundation.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The foundation has listed the contribution as a capital deposit in its return for 2013-14, but Electoral Commissioner Phillip Green said he was investigating whether the amount should also have been disclosed as a receipt.
Political parties are required to disclose all receipts above $1000. The only receipt declared by the 1973 Foundation is $456,000 from real-estate firm CB Richard Ellis, presumably rent on the building it owns in Sydney. It gave $240,000 to the ACT branch of the Labor Party.
In a surprise move last week, the ACT Government introduced legislation that will scrap the $10,000 cap on donations from any one organisation or person each year. The government also moved to overturn a rule that has stopped organisations and businesses from donating to ACT political parties (after a High Court ruling that suggested the provision was unconstitutional).
If both measures are passed, which they look set to be with the support of both major parties, the clubs will be able to donate any amount directly to the ACT Labor Party without having to send the money to the 1973 Foundation. And the party would be free to use it on ACT election campaigns, subject to the election spending cap of about $1 million.
But party secretary Matt Byrne said the point of setting up the 1973 Foundation was to reduce reliance on clubs and gambling, with the foundation making investments to fund the party instead. He did not believe the clubs would be giving any more money to the foundation and he did not expect large-scale donations from the clubs to the party under the proposed new laws. Nor did he expect money from the foundation to be used to fight ACT election campaigns. "It's there to ensure the long-term viability of the ALP," he said. "Small disbursements come from the foundation to the ALP, it's not a carte blanche river of money at all."
Asked where the Labor Club's money would go if not to the foundation or the Labor Party, he said that was a matter for the club. The club did not return calls.
On the plan to scrap the $10,000 cap on donations, Mr Byrne said the party's view was that it was better to limit how much parties could spend on election campaigns than to limit how much they could receive in donations.
