Madura McCormack takes out a gong at Clarion awards.

Former Townsville Bulletin scribe Madura McCormack takes out a gong at Clarion awards.

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Former Townsville Bulletin political scribe Madura McCormack has taken out a gong at Queensland’s prestigious Clarion awards.

Ms McCormack revealed Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy spent $642,083 on Greg Dowling’s campaign for the mayoralty of Townsville in March. One of those donations was worth $400,000, the single largest in Queensland’s electoral history.

Ms McCormack said it was important people knew who they were voting for and what affiliations they had.

“I think it was really important to write this story for a regional audience because I think this sort of information gets overlooked at a national level,” she said.

“It was an obscene amount of money.

“I think I was more surprised that its 2020 and at that time we still hadn't introduced caps that people can spend on donations.”

The Clarion judges said they singled out the story for its “research and public impact”.

“This brought national attention to the issue of local government electoral funding. Strong journalism.”

Originally published as Madura McCormack takes out a gong at Clarion awards.