Jackie Trad met embattled donor

Jackie Trad met a debt collector accused of unconscionable conduct over donations to Labor.

Jackie Trad. Picture: Annette Dew

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad met a corporate debt collector accused of unconscionable conduct after the company donated to Queensland Labor for cash-for-access meetings at its state conference.

Three businesses linked to debt collector Panthera Group made three separate donations of $5500 to the Queensland ALP this month for tickets to the party’s “business partnerships” program, run on the sidelines of last weekend’s conference.

Corporate donations of $5500 or $11,000 secure access to the conference — attended by federal, state and local Labor politicians, union leaders and party delegates — and high-level meetings with Palaszczuk government ministers.

A spokesman for Premier Anna­stacia Palaszczuk yesterday refused to release the details of all of the ministerial meetings with a raft of corporate business observers, ahead of official disclosure in ministerial diaries next month.

But Ms Trad’s spokesman confirmed the Treasurer had met with Panthera “and a number of other debt collection agencies as part of the Business Partnership Prog­ram”. “These agencies are typically engaged by state and federal governments, government entit­ies like the Australian Taxation Office, and major Australian corp­orations,” the spokesman said.

Panthera Finance, ARL Collect and Billchaser all separately donated $5500 to attend the conference, and are understood to have registered separately for Labor’s business program. The companies share the same directors.

Panthera Finance is fighting Australian Competition & Consumer Commission allegations that it unduly harassed three consumers over debts they did not owe, and used coercion, made false representations and engaged in unconscionable conduct.

A Panthera spokesman said it was in mediation with the ACCC, and its attendance at the weekend Labor conference was entirely separate to the legal stoush.

“We note that the ACCC falls under the jurisdiction of the federal Coalition government and not the Queensland state Labor government,” he said.

He said representatives from different Panthera Group companies attended the conference to engage with the government on its “management of the finance sector and its economic priorities for the state”.

Both Labor and the Liberal National Party run business observers programs at state conferences or conventions, as well as other cash-for-access events with MPs, ministers and shadow ministers.

Labor state secretary Julie-Anne Campbell said: “Queensland has led the way on regulating political donations. All donations accepted by the ALP are in accordance with those laws.”

While party donations are declared on the Electoral Commission of Queensland website, it is not stated which payments relate to access meetings with politicians. The LNP is less transparent than Labor when it comes to corporate fundraising schemes.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington has not declared which dono­rs paid to meet her at the LNP’s state convention last month, in contrast to Palaszczuk government ministers, who do make the information public. And the LNP refused to say yesterday which companies paid to meet Ms Frecklington’s frontbench and backbenchers at the party’s state convention.

The Australian understands donors pay about $6000 for ­annual membership to the LNP’s QForum fundraising program.