They're described as financial disclosure returns from Canberra's political parties, but disclosure seems hardly the word. The returns show a string of reasonably modest donations to both major parties, generally $1000 to $3000. But they also reveal big gaps in what we are allowed to know.
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The Labor Party has switched from the Canberra Labor Club group to the 1973 Foundation as its chief source of support, a way of making its reliance on the clubs, and on gambling, less overt. But the switch is little more than sleight of hand – the club group has financed the 1973 Foundation's investments. It paid for the Sydney property, which in the last 12 months delivered $240,000 to the Labor party via the 1973 Foundation.
The 1973 Foundation, named for the year the ACT branch of the Labor Party was set up, is run by a board of former politicians, including Jon Stanhope, Rosemary Follett and Annette Ellis.
Its only income for the past financial year came from Sydney real-estate agent CB Richard Ellis, which manages the Sydney property. CB Richard Ellis channelled $456,000 to the foundation, which in turn handed $240,000 to Labor.
That's about as much as we can tell you about the 1973 Foundation, since the party won't share details, other than confirming the Sydney building contains a childcare centre.
Labor also receives substantial donations from the unions.
The two biggest amounts to the Liberals (other than a transfer of money from head office, and the public funding that all parties receive) are rent from security company Stratsec, owned by BAE ($218,000), and risk management company PSARN International ($33,500), both tenants in the Liberal Party's building in Deakin.
The lists of donations and gifts in 2013-14, released on Monday by the Electoral Commission, has some gaps in disclosure – notably, the difference between the amount received by the party and the amount declared in detail. Under laws devised and enacted by themselves, parties don't need to declare donations of up to $1000. Such donations can remain anonymous.
The Liberal Party leads the pack in these undisclosed smaller donations. Overall, it received $1.16 million in the past 12 months. The donors of $743,000 are identified, but $420,000 of donations remain anonymous, presumably made up of donations under the $1000 threshold.
The Labor Party received $814,000 in all, of which $91,500 came from anonymous sources.
Between the two major parties that's more than half a million dollars in anonymous donations.
As for what is disclosed, you notice immediately the preponderance of property developers – CIC, Crafted Developments, Tim Efkarpidis, Gabriel Gaha, Nick Georgalis, Rowan Hindmarsh, Jeff Konstantinou, James Koundouris, John Miller of Master Builders, Bob Winnel (Village Building) and Josip Zivko, and consultant Rob Purdon all donated to Labor.
The Liberals also benefited from property largesse, perhaps unsurprising given they are in Opposition, with donations from CIC, Nick Georgalis, Colliers, the Independent Property Group, Minotaur Constructions, Manny Notaras, Tony Vidovic and Bob Winnel.
David Griffin of Infigen Energy, a company eyeing the wind auction that closes this week, gave $1000 to Labor.
