$123m ‘dark money’: Shock political donations revealed

The bombshell amount of money political parties have received from unknown sources in recent years has been revealed.

EXCLUSIVE

Labor, the Coalition and Greens have received more than $123 million in “dark money” political donations this term, with cash from unknown sources making up about a third of the major parties’ income.

Analysis of Australian Electoral Commission annual returns from the last two financial years conducted by The Daily Telegraph shows the Albanese Government received about $48m from donors who gave under the required public reporting threshold, which was $15,200 in 2022-23 and $16,300 in 2023-24.

Over the same period the Liberals and Nationals received about $62m from unknown donors and the Greens cashed in more than $13.8m.

Labor, the Coalition and Greens have received more than $123 million in “dark money” political donations this term with cash from unknown sources making up about a third of the major parties’ income.

The accumulative impact of smaller donors rivals the total contributions of Australia’s wealthiest individuals and businesses, including prominent business figures like Anthony Pratt, Gina Rinehart, Robert Keldoulis and Harry Triguboff who all featured high on the list of mega-donors for last financial year.

In 2023-24 alone, 48 per cent of the Coalition’s income was from unknown sources, while the origins of about 38 per cent of Labor’s donations 45 per cent of the Greens’ money was also not required to be disclosed.

Labor is currently in talks with the Coalition and crossbench seeking support for sweeping changes to electoral donation rules, including lowering threshold for publicly reporting the source of cash to contributions of $1000 or higher.

Independent Senator David Pocock, who received $205,272 in income in 2023-24, of which $91,539 was detailed as coming from venture capital investor James Taylor, supports reducing the reporting threshold.

Independent Senator David Pocock supports reducing the reporting threshold. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“The major parties accepting over $100 million in dark money donations over the past few years is bad for democracy and Australians should be outraged,” he said.

“We could pass laws this week to start cleaning up political donations, including by lowering the disclosure threshold and implementing real time donations.”

Mr Pocock said the crossbench had been pushing for transparency and donations reform for years.

“I also want to see curbs on this system of payment for access,” he said.

“Our politicians are there to serve our communities – paying for privileged access needs to end.

“It’s very interesting the level of scrutiny independents are copping compared to the major parties when we are so much more transparent about our donors than they are and refuse money from vested interests like gambling.”

Labor’s proposed reforms also include a cap on individual donations of $20,000 and would limit campaign spending to $800,000 per electorate, or $90m in total nationally for a federal election.

Mr Pocock and independent Curtin MP Kate Chaney held talks with Special Minister of State Don Farrell on Monday in an attempt to progress their compromise proposal, which would result in the majority of Labor’s bill passing while the caps would be referred to an inquiry.

Originally published as $123m ‘dark money’: Shock political donations revealed