Splitting trickery helps to skirt rules on OZschwitz party donations

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

Splitting trickery helps to skirt rules on OZschwitz party donations

Splitting trickery helps to skirt rules on OZschwitz party donations

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