Corporate donors look to Victorian Labor as polls point to a Daniel Andrews win

THE Victorian ALP has raised more money in the past week than during its entire term in opposition as donations pour in.

THE Victorian ALP has raised more money in the past week than during its entire term in opposition as corporate donations flood in and published opinion polls point to a Labor win.

Labor is planning to plough the proceeds back into the campaign as the major parties ramp up their negative advertising in the race to the November 29 election.

The late surge in cash, however, comes after a sustained and successful period of fundraising by the Liberal Party, with many hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing into its coffers after a ­recent fundraiser headlined by Tony ­Abbott.

A senior ALP source told The Australian that, in the wake of a string of bad polls for the ­Napthine government, corporate ­donors were contemplating a Labor win. “We have had more donations come in than we have had in the last three years,’’ one ALP source said. “We were not getting anything like this in 2010. All of a sudden everyone is knocking on the door.”

Labor leader Daniel Andrews’s vow to tear up the contracts for the East West Link toll road project — and government efforts to link him to the militant building union — were thought to be holding back corporate support.

The parties are reluctant to discuss budgets, but it is understood the Coalition will spend at least $10 million on the campaign, with $6m on television ads. The ALP is expected to spend $7m and channel about $4m of that into TV ads.

Another source backed the claims of a flood of corporate ­donations to the ALP, saying companies that had banked on a two-term Coalition government were beginning to hedge their bets.

“That’s essentially true,’’ one source said. “Companies don’t want to be friends with parties, but they aspire to be friends with governments. There is this anger in corporate Melbourne about how totally ineffective this government has been under (former premier) Ted Baillieu and Denis Napthine. You can’t find anyone in this town — private equity, banks, developers — who doesn’t think it’s been four wasted years.”

Polls for the past two years have had the ALP with an election-winning lead, even though Labor is fighting against history to make the Napthine government the first one-term government in Victoria in 60 years.

A Liberal source said ALP claims had to be taken with a grain of salt, but there was “no doubt” there was a trend of money “piling on” to the ALP. Dr Napthine said yesterday that he left the party’s ­finances up to the Liberal administration. “But I’m happy with the amount of money the Liberal Party has to spend,’’ he said.

Mr Andrews also appears to have secured the backing of casino mogul James Packer if the comment of Mr Packer’s close friend Lloyd Williams — pledging the Crown chief’s support — is to be believed.

Philanthropist Jeanne Pratt will tonight host a $5000-a-head fundraiser in support of the Labor campaign. The event, promoted by the Labor fundraising body Progressive Business Association, will give select big spenders access to Mr Andrews and former prime minister Julia Gillard. Members of the opposition frontbench will also attend.

While Victorian Liberal stalwarts refuse to count Dr Napthine out, and the contest still has two weeks to run, some federal Liberals have effectively written off the Victorian government and moved to inoculate the Abbott government from any fallout.

Federal Liberal MPs told The Australian that Dr Napthine had run a “weak” campaign and moved to head off attempts by the state party to pin the blame, in the event of a defeat, on the Prime Minister’s relatively poor standing in the state.