Lambie in mea culpa on failure to keep donation disclosure promise after questions raised by The Australian

Jacqui Lambie, who frequently lambasts other MPs over shoddy transparency, concedes she kept details of her own donations secret for almost two years.

Jacqui Lambie – who promised leading donation disclosure and frequently lambasts other politicians over shoddy transparency – has conceded keeping the detail of her own donations secret for almost two years.

The Tasmanian senator had promised she and her party would have “the most transparent donation policy in the country” and to publish “the most detailed breakdown of our donations of any political party”.

This was to include quarterly reports on her website, the first of which she promised would be published on March 31, 2020 – almost two years ago.

As of Friday morning last week, no such details had been provided by Senator Lambie for any quarter, while her Australian Electoral Commission disclosure identified the source of just $5960 – 1.3 per cent – of her $458,428 declared donations.

After queries from The Australian during last week, however, Senator Lambie suddenly published the missing quarterly reports on her website late on Friday, Tweeting:

“Had a journalist ask about our political donations. We value transparency. So, here’s everything.”

Senator Lambie’s office thanked The Australian for bringing the disclosure failure to night. Release of information late on Friday is a common tactic by politicians looking to “bury” or avoid scrutiny of an announcement or development.

The outspoken senator conceded she had failed to deliver promised transparency but argued the data now released showed her Jacqui Lambie Network party was grassroots.

“We committed to go above and beyond the legislative requirement and regularly publish the most comprehensive donation reports in the country – and we didn’t,” a JLN spokeswoman conceded.

“We think everyone has a right to know who’s donating and how much. And we’re putting ourselves out there as the first party to do something about it. That’s why we’re publishing all outstanding quarterly disclosures.

“The Jacqui Lambie Network is entirely funded by small donations from people who’ve often never given anything to a political party before. We’re proud our median donation is $27. We don’t rely on funding from millionaires, corporations or unions.”

Senator Lambie stood by her support for tougher donation disclosure laws, which currently only require disclosure of donations above $14,500.

“Donation transparency laws are rubbish,” her spokeswoman said.

“They should be fixed. It‘s an embarrassment for the Liberals that they’ve had eight years to fix them.”

Senator Lambie has recently been spending on advertising in the hope of securing the election of her office manager, Tammy Tyrell, to Tasmania’s sixth Senate spot.

Political sources estimate Senator Lambie or the JLN has spent at least $65,000 on Facebook advertising since 2020, in additional to expensive billboard ads.

The data now released by Senator Lambie appears to support her claim to rely on individual donors, with the largest listed donation of $5005 coming from an Adam Gillett.

Only one other donor is named, a Sarah Ross, who donated $3848. The otherwise de-identified data suggests total donations ranging from $40,293 to $158,093 per quarter, with the number of donors ranging from 1114 to 5458.

The average donation per quarter since the start of 2020 has ranged from $25 to $39, while the median has ranged from $20 to $27.

In the last quarter of 2021, $61,466 came from NSW and the ACT; $45,769 from Victoria; $18,058 from Qld; $12,449 from Tasmania; $10,507 from WA; $8506 from SA, and; $1188 from the NT.

A Liberal campaign spokesman said Senator Lambie had been “caught out deceiving Tasmanians”.

“This is further proof that we need to look at what Senator Lambie actually does, not what she says,” he said.