South Australia’s top political donors in 2016-17 revealed

CHINESE mining identity Sally Zou has again been the largest donor to the South Australian branch of the Liberal Party but her contribution was about $45,000 less than last financial year. Here’s the rundown of the top political donations.

CHINESE mining identity Sally Zou has again been the largest donor to the South Australian branch of the Liberal Party but her contribution was about $45,000 less than last year.

SA Labor relied on unions for its coffers with the right-wing Shoppies Union handing over the most cash — $150,000.

All up the SA Liberals' total receipts came in at almost $4.5 million for 2016-17, well outstripping that of Labor’s SA branch of $2.1 million. Nick Xenophon Team pulled in $1.58 million in total receipts.

Parties were only required to declare the origin of donations and income when the amount received from a sole source was more than $13,200.

AusGold Mining Group — run by Ms Zou — gave the SA Liberals $316,064 and was easily the biggest sole donor in the state but it was down on the $360,000 handed over last year.

Ian and Pam Wall each donated $105,000 to the SA Liberals, while the Australian Hotels Association (SA Division) gave $38,000, and Accolade Wines, Robert Stobbe and the Scaffidi Group each handed over $25,000.

Adelaide-based Chinese entrepreneur Sally Zou whose company AusGold Mining Group was the SA Liberals biggest single donor in 2016/17. Picture: Jo-Anna Robinson.

On top of the Shop Distributive Association SA Branch donation, SA Labor were also gifted $85,409 from left-wing union United Voice and $87,245 from party fundraiser SA Progressive Business.

NXT declared the source of $1.37 million, which was the Australian Electoral Commission and the Australian Taxation Office. But a number unknown smaller donations made up about $200,000.

The AEC disclosures released Thursday confirm Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was the largest single donor to his federal party in the last financial year, handing over $1.75 million.

Roslyn Packer, the widow of Kerry Packer, also donated $500,000 to the Liberal Party.

Overall, the Liberals, including Queensland’s Liberal National Party, received $95.1 million, while Labor pocketed just over $70 million.

Candidates and parties receive $2.68 for every formal first preference vote, if they receive more than four per cent of the total vote in their electorate.

Philip Morris donated $20,000 to the Liberal Democratic Party and $15,000 to the National Party.

Labor banned tobacco donations in 2004, while the Liberals followed suit in 2013.

Chinese billionaire Chau Chak Wing’s Hong Kong Kingson Investment donated $30,000 to Labor frontbencher Tony Burke’s campaign last May.

The Federal Government has drafted laws which will ban donations from foreign bank accounts, non-citizens and foreign entities to all types of political campaigning.

It says the changes will ensure only those with a meaningful connection to Australia can influence domestic politics and election campaigns.