Queensland election 2017: Unions hand Labor a $1.49 million war chest

QUEENSLAND unions are bankrolling the re-election hopes of the Palaszczuk Government at a rate of more than $15,000 a day.

QUEENSLAND unions are bankrolling the re-election hopes of the Palaszczuk Government at a rate of more than $15,000 a day.

Analysis of donation declarations reveal Labor has raked in $396,000 from trade unions since the November 25 election was called late last month. That was on top of the $135,000 in funds that flowed in the month before the poll was called.

The militant Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union has contributed $158,000 in funding since 2015, including more than $71,000 during this month’s election campaign.

Labor’s union ties have drawn criticism after a series of court decisions against the CFMEU for illegally disrupting Queensland worksites.

The CFMEU has been fined a total $569,000 since January, covering four separate court cases.

Union protesters from the Queensland Council of Unions march through the Brisbane CBD yesterday. Picture: AAP/Jono Searle

One case last month resulted in a $306,000 fine after the union was found responsible for the actions of former state president David Hanna, who illegally walked onto a Brisbane worksite in 2015 and threatened to bury a phone down someone’s throat.

According to political analyst Paul Williams, Ms Palaszczuk, who in early 2015 posed for a well-publicised ‘selfie’ with Mr Hanna, should have done more to stand-up to claims of union favouritism.

“There’s no doubt that suggestions Labor is beholden to unions, militant unions especially, is something of a millstone around Palaszczuk’s neck,” Mr Williams said.

All up, unions have handed Labor a $1.49 million election war chest when factoring in union donations, affiliation fees and other funding that has flowed to the party since 2015.

But the funding is a sliver of what the unions will pour into sandbagging Labor during the campaign when including undeclared manpower and political attack material, the Opposition says.

While political donations to and from the unions must be declared, their campaign spending does not. It means the unions can pour resources into attacking the LNP in the election lead-up alongside the party’s official campaign without the dollar value of the support having to be made public.

The “parallel campaigns” issue created problems in the 2016 council elections when the CFMEU financially backed candidates for the first time.

It spent about $38,000 on failed Gold Coast mayoral candidate Penny Toland’s campaign, including directly buying T-shirts and bus advertisements bearing her image.

Thousands of political attack advertisements are now being circulated by the powerful Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) targeting LNP leader Tim Nicholls.

Premier Palaszczuk posed for a well-publicised ‘selfie’ with former CFMEU representative Dave Hanna in 2015. Picture: Glenn Barnes

The “It’ll be Grim Under Tim” leaflet ties Mr Nicholls to former Premier Campbell Newman and widely unpopular decisions to slash jobs and privatise state assets.

LNP spokesman Scott Emerson said the union campaigning “flies in the face of transparency.”

“Those same union thugs who have run the Palaszczuk Government for three years are funding parallel campaigns of fear and smear so they can keep pulling the Labor Party’s strings,” he said.

The Government responded to the accusations by referring to its introduction of real-time disclosures for political donations and lowering the declaration threshold from $12,800 to $1000.

Labor state secretary Evan Moorhead said all its donations complied with the tough new disclosure rules and unions ran their own campaigns.

Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Ros McLennan said any political donations made by the QCU have been declared as required under the new real-time disclosure laws.

“Individual unions, however, may be making their own donations to political parties,” she said.

“It’s difficult to put a true value on secure jobs, restoring frontline services, protecting workplace rights and keeping public assets in public hands.”