Annastacia Palaszczuk reintroduces cash-for-access business fundraising in Queensland

Annastacia Palaszczuk has broken a promise to ban her ministers from attending controversial cash-for-access fundraisers, as Labor revives its lucrative program.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is again allowing Labor to sell access to her and her ministers, despite banning controversial cash-for-access fundraisers in July. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

Queensland Labor is again selling access to Annastacia Palaszczuk and her ministers, not even a year after the Premier banned her cabinet from attending the controversial business fundraising events.

State ALP headquarters has ­ resurrected and renamed the cash-for-access corporate dona­tion scheme, inviting donors to pay $10,000 plus GST per year to join the Queensland Labor Business Roundtable Program, including intimate monthly “board­room-style lunches and dinners” with government ministers.

In July last year, as new electoral donation caps came into effect, Ms Palaszczuk confirmed she had banned her ministers from attending cash-for-access fundraisers.

At the time, she said she had written to state secretary Kate Flanders advising her that cabinet would no longer participate in the party’s Queensland Business Partnership Network, which would end the program.

“This will mean the end of the annual state conference business observers, and all other events associated with the Qld Business Partnership Network,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

In 2019, when introducing legislative reforms including expenditure caps and an increase in public funding for elections, she said: “To put it simply, voters will not have to worry about whether money talks. So-called cash for ­access will be gone.”

Ms Palaszczuk has defied her own ban on Labor holding cash-for-access fundraising events. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

But Ms Flanders has revived Labor’s business donors network, after being grossly out-fundraised by the LNP in the year since the Premier’s edict came into effect.

Public records show that since Ms Palaszczuk’s ban on July 1, the ALP has raised just $167,805 in the form of 89 donations. That is eclipsed by the LNP, which has raised $752,711 from 247 donations.

The LNP never stopped running cash-for-access events, despite the Premier’s self-imposed ban on her party, and its Solutions Queensland program costs $25,000 plus GST per year for top-tier sponsors.

In an email addressed to business leaders last week, Labor’s ­director of business partnerships, Whitney Luzzo-Kelly, said members of the program would receive “monthly invitations to state government portfolio updates through boardroom style lunches and dinners, as well as invitations to local, state and federal events, and Labor events such as the upcoming … Post-Budget Lunch.

“We are dedicated to creating a platform for industry and community leaders to exchange ideas for a thriving Australian economy through regular forums, events and engagements,” Ms Luzzo-Kelly’s email reads.

In an attached invitation to the post-budget lunch, sponsored by EY, Queensland Labor invites donors to attend the event with Ms Palaszczuk, Treasurer Cameron Dick and other ministers.

Tickets are $250 plus GST per person, or $2200 plus GST for a table of 10. The lunch is not included in the $10,000 subscription fee for the business roundtable program.

Qld Labor State Secretary Kate Flanders – speaking at last year’s ALP post-budget lunch – has defended reviving the party’s cash-for-access business fundraising program. Photo: Steve Pohlner

ALP state secretary Ms Flanders told The Australian the roundtable meant Labor was again on a level-playing field with the LNP.

“The Labor Business Roundtable is a way the party engages with businesses across Queensland and we have events with representatives from every level of government – local, state and federal – as well as other key people in the Labor Party,” she said.

“The program we’ve created has been checked off with the electoral commission and is completely compliant with the government’s important electoral reforms to take the big money out of politics.

“The LNP has a similar program, but it’s a lot more expensive. I think it’s important that we have a level playing field.”

Both Labor and the LNP’s corporate donation programs are raising funds for the party organisation, rather than to run election campaigns.

Ms Palaszczuk’s government has not introduced donation caps on organisational fundraising.

At a press conference, Ms Palaszczuk was asked whether Labor’s post-budget fundraising lunch was contrary to her promise to stop cash-for-access events.

“It’s actually our post-budget lunch that happens, and it has happened every year … all parties do that one,” she said. “It’s not, you know, $20,000 or $30,000.”

The Australian asked Ms Palaszczuk’s office how she justified the about-face on cash-for-access fundraisers, and questioned if the move was a broken promise.

However, a spokesman for the Premier did not answer those questions.

“Our nation-leading electoral reforms have indeed taken big money out of Queensland politics,” the spokesman said.

“This is evidenced by the fact that the most a person or entity can donate for electoral expenditure is capped at $4000 for political parties and $6000 for candidates. Before our national leading reforms, there was no limit at all on the amount corporate entities could donate to political parties for electoral expenditure.

“In contrast to our reforms, one of the first things the Newman government did when they came to power was to increase the reportable donation disclosure threshold, meaning big money ­donations of up to $12,800 could be made anonymously.”