RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Splitting trickery helps to skirt rules on OZschwitz party donations Sat Feb 05, 2011 4:59 am | |
| BUSINESSES seeking to buy political influence are increasingly splitting their donations to political parties into multiple amounts to avoid the kind of public scrutiny that a single large contribution attracts.
An analysis of the latest political funding disclosures shows 13 companies and interest groups made a series of small donations in 2009-10, which added up to $100,000-plus sums.
The Herald found another 21 businesses, lobbying and professional services firms using multiple small donations to contribute more than $50,000 apiece to the major political parties in 2009-10.
The biggest multiple donors are the ethanol producer Manildra; gambling interests, including Crown, Tabcorp and Clubs NSW; tobacco companies Philip Morris and British American Tobacco, and companies with interests in infrastructure projects like Leighton Holdings and the Macquarie Group.
Individual donations ranged from as little as $50 for raffle tickets at Labor and Liberal fund-raising functions to amounts like the $2500 several businesses paid to attend an ''intimate lunch'' with the Labor factional leader Mark Arbib, and $1500 for a breakfast with the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott.
ANCAPS: ANARCHO-CAPITALISTS |
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