A stand-off between Queensland's Liberal National Party and the state's electoral commission about which political donations should be publicly disclosed has been laid bare in the Supreme Court.
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Justice David Jackson has been asked to decide if the LNP must declare donations of $1000 or more, as is required under state law, or only those above the $13,500 commonwealth threshold.
A focal point of the legal stoush stems from how political parties are able to differentiate between state and federal donations, which the LNP says it can.
But lawyers for the Electoral Commission of Queensland say donations made to state-registered entities fall under state law and that drawing such a distinction between donations was "fraught".
Liam Kelly QC told the court that if the LNP was correct, they could determine whether the intention of the donor is for either federal or state arms of the party.
"That is a very fraught way of administering the act and neither the commonwealth or state act makes any provision for the agent of a party, a political party, to make judgments," he said.
The LNP's lawyer, Thomas Bradley QC, argued the state threshold imposed a burden on political parties the commonwealth law does not.
Under former LNP premier Campbell Newman, laws were changed to raise Queensland's threshold to that of the Commonwealth, but Annastacia Palaszczuk's Labor government changed it back and made disclosures retrospective.
Justice Jackson will hand down his judgment on March 1.
AAP
