Australia’s richest man Anthony Pratt donated $1.5m to Coalition parties

Anthony Pratt is the federal Liberals’ biggest private donor, giving more than $1.5m to the Liberals, Nationals and their state branches in the past year.

Anthony Pratt and Scott Morrison at the American-Australian Association in New York in 2019. Picture: AAP

Australia’s richest man Anthony Pratt has given Scott Morrison’s Coalition a $1.5m boost and ­become one of its biggest single donors in the past financial year, as the Melbourne box tycoon and long-time friend of former Labor leader Bill Shorten pauses donations to the ALP.

New Australian Electoral Commission financial disclosures show party coffers have shrunk across the political spectrum following the 2019 election and the coronavirus recession, with the Coalition and Labor down nearly $112m and more than $70m each.

Mr Pratt’s family firm Pratt Holdings is the second biggest political donor of the year — ­behind mining tycoon Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy — and ­donated $1.1m to the Liberals’ federal branch in January 2020, $250,000 to the Nationals last March, and $300,000 to the federal Liberals and the Victorian division in August 2019.

In contrast, Mr Pratt gave $1.6m in donations to the Labor Party in 2018-19 when it appeared Mr Shorten was likely to win the federal election, compared with the $1.42m the Pratt family donated to the Liberal Party.

Mr Shorten has decade-long links with Mr Pratt and his late ­father, Richard Pratt, and the billionaire attended Mr Shorten’s election party in May 2019.

The Australian approached Pratt Holdings for comment.

Pratt Holdings has in the past ramped up donations to Labor in election years, while donating primarily to the Liberals in non-election years. Mr Pratt has cultivated a close relationship with the Prime Minister since he took ­office, with Mr Morrison visiting Mr Pratt’s Ohio paper mill with then US president Donald Trump in September 2019.

Gas firm Woodside, investment bank Macquarie and retailers Wesfarmers rounded off the top corporate donors of the year and all three gave funds to both the Liberals and Labor.

The AEC disclosures sparked a wider political fight on Monday as Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter attacked trade unions for donating nearly $5m to the ALP in a financial year that took in the first wave of the corona­virus pandemic.

“At a time when Australians most need co-operation rather than partisan politics, not even a global pandemic has slowed down or caused any rethink at all to the massive amounts of money the union movement has funnelled to its mates in the Labor Party,” Mr Porter said.

“Surely that money would have been better spent with a focus on the real, immediate needs of workers in the last year.”

 

The Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association gave more than $1m to Labor in the 2019-20 financial year, the United Workers Union gave more than $625,000, and the CFMEU ­donated nearly $550,000, down from $2m the previous year.

Anthony Albanese said Labor was committed to donations transparency and any issues with donations could be dealt with by a national ICAC with adequate powers. “We declare all donations of $1000 and above, even though we don’t have to under the law,” the Opposition Leader said in Canberra.

“That’s what Labor does, ­because we believe in transparency and we think that should be the law. We have consistently argued that. We tried to do that when we were in government.”

The Coalition posted nearly $70m in receipts in the past financial year, compared to more than $180m in 2018-19.

Labor recorded receipts of more than $55m compared to $126m the previous year.