It’s better than winning Dancing With The Stars.
Pauline Hanson got almost $200,000 in election funding for her
unsuccessful Senate bid last year, according to the Australian
Electoral Commission Funding and Disclosure Report, released yesterday.

The
AEC paid out just under $42 million in public funding to parties and
candidates after the 2004 election. Election contenders who get more
than four per cent of formal first preference votes are entitled to the
dosh, worth around $1.90 per vote.

The big winners were the big
winners, the Liberal Party, who scored almost $18 mil. Their Coalition
cousins, the Nationals, picked up just under three mil. The ALP got
$16.7 million, while new boys Family First pocketed $158,451.04 after
the poll.

The big losers this time round are the Australian
Democrats. Their funding vanished with their vote. They ended up
getting a tad under $8,500 – 99.67 per cent less than the $2,412,000
they received in 2001 and not much more than the $7,346.26 picked up by
the colourful sometime NSW Labor operative Sam Barshoon. In comparison,
the Australian Greens scored over $3 million. That’s a lot of lentils.

Funding winners and losers:

Liberal Party: $17,956,326.48

Australian Labor Party: $16,710,043.43

Australian Greens: $3,316,702.48

National Party: $2,966,531.27

Northern Territory Country Liberal Party: $158,973.97

Family First Party: $158,451.04

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation: $56,215.73

Australian Democrats: $8,491.26

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group): $6,572.56

No Goods and Services Tax Party: $5,995.20

Pauline Hanson: $199,886.77

Antony (Tony) Windsor: $89,562.59

Peter Andren: $79,413.12

Robert (Bob) Katter: $63,544.49

Peter King: $25,730.39

Brian Deegan: $24,449.31

Lars Hedberg: $19,400.82

Graeme Campbell: $12,935.18

Robert (Rob) Bryant: $12,120.65

Robert Dunn: $11,761.02

Margaret F Menzel: $10,977.60

Darren Power: $9,980.34

Bruce Haigh: $7,381.25

Jeanette (Jen) Sackley: $7,365.70

Samir (Sam) Bar shoon: $7,346.26.