Million-dollar loans from rich-listers for Crisafulli’s war chest
The Liberal National Party has solicited multimillion-dollar loans to prop up David Crisafulli’s election campaign war chest from conservative political rich-listers.
The Liberal National Party has solicited multimillion-dollar loans to prop up David Crisafulli’s election campaign war chest from conservative political rich-listers, including former party president Gary Spence who was banned from donating because he was deemed a property developer.
In an unprecedented move, electoral disclosures show Mr Spence loaned $1m to the LNP last Friday, on the same day former LNP Treasurer Stuart Fraser – who knocked sitting senator Gerard Rennick off the senate ticket – loaned $985,000 to the party.
Mr Spence declined to comment but The Australian has been told he is no longer a property developer and is now legally allowed to donate in Queensland.
Earlier in the campaign Mr Fraser – a director of Winscourt Capital which provides “flexible finance” to clients including property developers – loaned an extra $15,000.
Retiring Ipswich West MP Darren Zanow loaned $2m to the party last Thursday, while former federal Nationals president and Queensland Senator Susan McDonald’s father Donald McDonald loaned $1m in the week before the campaign started.
Mr McDonald is the patriarch of a multi-generational grazing empire, which owned more than three million hectares of land in 2013.
Former federal senator and LNP candidate for Oodgeroo Amanda Stoker’s husband Adam Stoker, a lawyer, has given $120,000 in loans in seven instalments from his company Strataver Counsel Pty Ltd since the start of the campaign.
LNP metropolitan vice president Doug Hawkes’s company Futurity Ascent Pty Ltd has loaned $49,000 in six instalments during the campaign.
All of the loans are stated to last for “six calendar months from financial close with extension option” and are due to be repaid in March and April next year.
The Australian understands the state’s electoral laws no longer allow political parties to borrow money from financial institutions such as banks to run campaigns.
Loans will be repaid with a commercial interest rate after the LNP receives public funding from the ECQ in the months following the election, and it is understood the party consulted with the electoral watchdog about the loans.
LNP state director Ben Riley said all of the loans came from people who had declared they were not property developers.
“Labor’s ruthless financial gerrymander was designed to smother Labor’s political opponents in a desperate attempt to cling to power after a decade of chaos and crisis,” Mr Riley said.
“Labor’s arrogance is precisely why Queenslanders need a fresh start.”
Mr Crisafulli refused to say whether he was aware of the loans.
“The party is complying with the laws that are in place, laws that were deliberately put in place to create a financial gerrymander,” he said.
“The laws are in place, the declarations are in place and you are able to see them, as you should be able to.”
Asked if he had offered any favours or special treatment to the people loaned the party money, Mr Crisafulli said: “of course not”.
An LNP source with knowledge of the arrangements said the party had a shortfall of $7m below their expected campaign spending. The source said the party went to rich backers asking them to loan $1m each which would be repaid when ECQ distributed public funding after the election, calculated on the number of votes the party received.
“For a party that’s been financially secure for so long, one has to ask why there’s a need to take out loans. But most of their money is tied up in real estate through a trust,” the source said.
Another LNP source said the Queensland branch was the richest Liberal division in Australia.
The Palaszczuk Labor government banned political donations from property developers at the state and local government level ahead of the 2017 state election.
Then LNP party president Mr Spence launched a legal challenge to the legislation that was dismissed by the High Court in 2019, and the full bench upheld the state laws.
Mr Spence is currently a director of the LNP’s property arm, 281 Sandgate Road Properties.
Mr Crisafulli has flagged an overhaul of the laws if he wins government at Saturday’s election, declaring there should be a “level playing field” for donors.
“Everyone should have the same rules or no one should be able to donate,” he said at the Queensland Media Club debate during the campaign.
“At the moment here in the state, you have a situation where every registered union is able to spend a million dollars campaigning against heavily capped environments for political parties.”
Mr Zanow was elected to parliament at the March by-election in the usually safe Labor seat of Ipswich West, but is retiring from politics due to ill health.
The LNP has massively out-fundraised all other parties during the campaign, raising $5.5m from 1903 donations this year, compared to Labor’s $1.87m from nearly 900 donations.
Labor is also propped up by registered third parties, including 16 unions, which are each entitled to spend up to $1m during the campaign period. Other third parties - including the Australian Institute of Progress and Australians for Prosperity - are largely funded by Coal Australia and are campaigning against the Labor government.
Minor party the Greens have raised $1.29m from 464 donations since the start of the year. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has raised $18,300 this year, and the Katter’s Australian Party has received $42,250 in ten donations.
Additional reporting: Lydia Lynch
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