Party bolsters branch coffers as foundation drops HQ support

The federal Liberal Party has bolstered the coffers of the Victorian branch following a dispute over foundation funding.

The federal Liberal Party has provide­d hundreds of thousands of extra dollars to its Victorian branch to bolster mail and TV amid uncertainty about future funding from the Cormack Foundation. The federal party has diverted funds to Victoria to ensure better TV advertising coverage and mailouts after the protracted dispute between the state organisation and the foundation.

The Melbourne-based found­ation is now saying it won’t provide­ its $1.8 million annual alloc­ation to run the administration of the Victorian party.

Cormack believes that changes to election funding and the sale for nearly $40m of the 104 Exhibition Street headquarters means the party doesn’t need that ongoing support.

But there is rising anger among key Liberals that the foundation has reneged on a longstanding arrangem­ent to fund the party, via Cormack’s $75m pot of money.

The stoush between Cormack and the party crippled the state organisati­on, stripping 104 Exhibition Street of crucial campaigning capacity. The party sued Cormack, arguing that it was failing to properly distribute money which the Victorian Liberals believed was rightly theirs.

Despite the apparent resolu­tion of the dispute late last year, the state branch found itself short of funds to mount this year’s election defence.

This is despite Victoria being the state deemed to have the greatest influence on the election, with Labor hoping to win as many as five seats.

The Liberal Party must confine its seat losses to two in Victoria to have any chance of holding on to office.

Neither the federal Liberal Party nor the Victorian Liberal Party responded.

A senior Liberal told The Aust­ralian yesterday that the Cormack Foundation would face increasing pressure to help out the state branch.

Late last year, Cormack agreed to pay $8.5m to the party — $2.5m for the state election and $6m for the next two federal elections. The foundation gave Scott Morrison a further $500,000 for campaigning on the eve of the calling of the federa­l election.

This is despite telling the Victorian party there would be a stop placed on donating money after this year’s election in order to rebuild the foundation in the wake of the multi-million-dollar court dispute with the party. The effect of this decision is that the Victorian party will have to draw down on the capital raised from the sale of the existing headquarters.

“We can’t believe Cormack gave the Prime Minister an extra $500,000 the other day but is now saying there is no money for the Victorian party,’’ a senior Liberal said. “People are furious.’’

The Australian understands the $1.8m annual support for the party’s Victorian administration was excluded from the deal due to the windfall sale of the party’s headquarters — reported to be up to $40m — and more generous public election funding arrangements in Victoria from 2022.

The Cormack deal was to provide $8.5m over three elections — $3m for this federal election, $3m for the next and $2.5m for the last Victorian campaign.

After the Morrison bonus, Cormack­ will have provided $3.5m for this federal campaign and $2.5m for the last state campaign, putting it ahead of schedule for its original commitments.