LNP rakes in donations after Steven Miles becomes Queensland Premier

Steven Miles was elevated to Premier in December, but records show it’s Opposition leader David Crisafulli and the LNP reaping the financial rewards.

Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, and Premier Steven Miles.

Steven Miles’s elevation as Premier of Queensland has been a boon for Opposition Leader David ­Crisafulli’s electoral war chest, with the Liberal National Party raising five times as much money as Labor since Mr Miles’s December swearing-in.

Donation records reveal the LNP has raked in $1,625,053 in less than five months since Mr Miles replaced former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, compared to Labor’s $295,573 in that period.

At least 437 donations have poured into the LNP since the ­official changing of the guard on December 15 and the single biggest financial contribution to the LNP was from National Transport Insurance Ltd, which gave $54,800 on March 5.

The gift was recorded by the LNP as a “non-political” donation to pay for an event ticket.

Under Queensland’s strict electoral donation and expenditure laws, individual donors can give only $4000 to a registered political party, $6000 to an independent candidate and $6000 collectively to candidates endorsed by the same party, but other cash can be contributed for “non-political reasons”, known colloquially as “keeping the lights on” at party headquarters.

Since Mr Miles became party leader, the Queensland ALP has received just 154 cash contributions and the largest was a gift of $43,396.41 from the Right faction’s Australian Workers Union, recorded as a “non-political ­donation” for “wages and admin” expenses. Labor’s second-largest donation also came from the AWU ($18,000), followed by the Left-aligned United Workers Union ($17,500), headed by Mr Miles’s political “mentor”, Gary Bullock.

Australian Energy Producers Limited – formerly known as the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association and representing the oil and gas industry – donated $11,000 to the ALP to participate in the party’s cash-for-access corporate observers program.

On the LNP side of the ledger, self-managed aged-care provider Trilogy Care Pty Ltd tipped $50,000 into LNP coffers, followed by the LNP’s new MP for the previously safe Labor seat of Ipswich West, Darren Zanow, who contributed $30,000 to his own successful by-election campaign.

Restaurateur David Wu gave $20,000 to the LNP, as did businessman Ron Baldwin.

Some of the LNP donations would have gone towards the local government campaign for last month’s Brisbane City Council elections, which saw Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner re-elected and retain the party’s hold on City Hall.

Mining lobby group the Queensland Resources Council is preparing to ramp up its campaign against the state government over its coal royalties regime, officially registering as a third party ahead of the October 26 state election.

Premier Steven Miles with Fortescue workers in Gladstone on Monday. Picture: Annette Dew

The QRC joins four Labor-backing unions, conservationist group Lock the Gate Alliance, and coal billionaire Chris Wallin’s ­Energy Resources Queensland as third parties, entitling each to spend up to $1m on a statewide campaign.

Since November 2022, the QRC has spent an estimated $40m on an ad campaign called Keep Queensland Competitive, warning voters of the need to protect the state’s mining “nest egg” and the alleged threat to the sector from Treasurer Cameron Dick’s decision to raise mining royalty rates in that year’s budget.

A spokesman said the QRC ­intended to spend up to the $1m cap on a “high-impact information campaign to explain how the increase in coal royalty taxes has damaged the industry and is affecting the communities in which we operate”.

Mr Crisafulli said in September he would not change the coal royalty regime for four years, because revenue had already been committed across the budget’s forward estimates. He would not rule out axing the regime after mid-2027.

Lock the Gate Alliance national co-ordinator Ellen Roberts said the organisation was planning to “engage all political parties” ahead of the election and would advocate for a restriction on the take of water from the Great Artesian Basin and preventing the loss of priority agricultural land to coal and gas developments.

“Among other activities, Lock the Gate will be creating an election policy scorecard so our supporters know where the parties stand on new coal and gas projects,” Ms Roberts said.