Federal election 2016: Liberals set for $4 million windfall

THE Liberal Party looks set to have its election war chest boosted by $4.4 million in public funding, which had been withheld by the NSW Electoral Commission over the ICAC illegal donations saga.

THE Liberal Party looks set to have its election war chest boosted by $4.4 million in public funding, which had been withheld by the NSW Electoral Commission over the ICAC illegal donations saga.

The party has cleared the way for getting its hands on the cash after it finally handed over details to the Independent Commission Against ­Corruption, detailing who had donated money through the controversial Free Enterprise Foundation.

The NSW Electoral Commission may now hold an ­extraordinary general meeting soon to see whether to hand over the money, which would be much-needed cash for the Liberals during a marathon, and therefore extremely costly, 55-day election campaign.

ICAC had exposed who those alleged illegal donors were in its Operation Spicer inquiry — including Nathan Tinkler’s Boardwalk Enterprises.

The chairman of the commission, Keith Mason, ­released a statement in March that said the public funding money due from the 2015 state election campaign would not be handed over until the Liberal Party accounted for $693,000 from the Free Enterprise Foundation, declared in 2011.

Much of this money had been donations from property developers, which was made ­illegal in 2009 by the former Labor government.

ICAC had exposed who those alleged illegal donors were in its Operation Spicer inquiry — including Nathan Tinkler’s Boardwalk Enterprises, Westfield and Lang Walker’s Walker Group ­Holdings — but the electoral commission said the Liberal Party had failed to declare them.

In a statement to The Daily Telegraph yesterday, the ­commission said: “The Liberal Party of Australia (NSW ­Division) has submitted its final audited amended ­disclosure for the 2011 ­disclosure period.

“The commission has not yet completed its own internal processes about that disclosure and continues to liaise with the party agent, Mr Bruce Walton.

“When the commission has completed its processes a meeting of the three-member commission will be held to ­consider whether the disclosure now complies with NSW’s electoral laws.”

Originally published as Federal election 2016: Liberals set for $4 million windfall