LNP donations kept secret after federal poll

Queensland’s Liberal National Party kept secret hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal election donations for months.

LNP treasurer Stuart Fraser. Picture: LinkedIn

Queensland’s Liberal National Party deliberately kept secret hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal election donations for months, contrary to state law, as it sweated on the result of a court challenge.

Party treasurer Stuart Fraser has confirmed the LNP did not declare until last week donations raised for the May 18 federal election, if they were under the federal disclosure threshold of $13,800, as it waited for a decision of the Queensland Court of Appeal.

The LNP lost the challenge last month, and the court found it needed to declare every donation over the Queensland threshold of $1000 within seven days of receiving it, even if the cash was for the federal poll.

“While we were in the Court of Appeal, we weren’t disclosing nominated federal donations above $1000 but below $13,800 while Labor were, because we were appealing that decision in court,” Mr Fraser told The Australian.

“It was a federal election … nearly all donations were federal donations in that time period.”

The Electoral Commission of Queensland is expected to update its real-time donation disclosure log this week with the belated LNP declarations.

But it currently shows Queensland Labor’s federal election fundraising vastly outstrips the LNP’s declared efforts in the period from the start of the year to the federal poll.

The LNP has disclosed only 59 donations totalling less than $200,000 in that period, while Labor has declared all of its fundraising, disclosing 524 donations worth $2.049m.

Mr Fraser said the LNP had legal advice supporting its ­decision to withhold the disclosures, and a spokeswoman for the electoral commission said it accepted the LNP had been waiting for the Court of Appeal judgment.

It comes as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the LNP had “serious questions to answer” after selling its headquarters to a property mogul donor and then renting it back.

The Australian revealed on Monday that Gold Coast millionaire John Zupp and his wife Wendy bought the LNP’s Spring Hill headquarters for $4.25m two weeks before the federal election, with the party now leasing back its office space.

Zupp Property Group donated nearly $163,000 to the LNP before property developer donations were banned by Ms Palaszczuk.

Both the LNP and Zupp Property Group have insisted the off-market deal was entirely above board and negotiated on commercial terms.

A spokesman for Ms Palas­zczuk said LNP leader Deb Frecklington should hold the party organisation to account.

“The story raises very serious questions which the LNP needs to answer,” he said. “And Ms Frecklington needs to make sure the party answers those questions.”

A spokesman for Ms Frecklington hit back, attacking Ms Palaszczuk over her government’s recent integrity issues involving her former chief of staff David Barbagallo and Deputy Premier Jackie Trad.

“All required details of the transaction have been disclosed, unlike Annastacia Palaszczuk’s handling of Jackie Trad’s dodgy property dealings or the scandal surrounding her former chief of staff (Mr Barbagallo),” he said.

Ms Trad was cleared by the Crime and Corruption Commission of corruption and dishonesty over an investment property, but found to have broken ministerial and cabinet rules.

Mr Barbagallo has denied any wrongdoing; the CCC is still ­examining a taxpayer-funded ­investment in a company he co-owns.

The LNP also sold a property at Hemmant, at the Port of Brisbane, for $4.75m in January, representing the liquidation of more than half of the party’s total property portfolio in the six months before the election.