2018-19 was another big year for donations from the Big Four consulting firms, with Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) together reaching a new record in donations to the major parties.
The firms jointly donated $1.02 million to political parties’ state and federal branches during the year, according to data released yesterday by the Australian Electoral Commission. That was up from $916,000 in 2017-18.
Big Four donations have steadily risen in recent years to the point where they represent one of the largest sources of political contributions.
The biggest donor by far was PwC, which gave over $386,000 in contributions to the major parties — $200,000 to the Coalition and the remainder to Labor branches.
That was a substantial increase over 2017-18, when the consulting and auditing giant gave $291,000 to the parties. EY also increased its contributions substantially, from $228,000 to $270,000, and leant more toward Labor, giving $157,000 to various Labor branches.
Deloitte gave $176,000, down from $182,000 the previous year, while KPMG gave $190,000, down from $213,000.
In all cases, the donations represent extraordinary value for money for firms that have been routinely criticised for conflicts of interest between auditing and consulting roles; displacing higher quality public sector sources of advice; and providing the resources for systemic tax avoidance by major corporations that have stripped governments across the globe of hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenue.
In 2018-19, PWC secured over 250 contracts worth at least $192 million from the federal government, according to the Austender website.
Seen as a return on investment, that’s $494 in federal contracts for every dollar donated — and that does not include the contracts secured from state and territory governments as well, which may well be worth as much again or more as federal contracts.
But KPMG garnered the best return: with contracts worth $289.4 million in 2018-19 from the federal government alone, that amounts to over $1500 in contracts for each dollar donated.
Deloitte, which obtained $174.6 million in federal contracts, managed $992 for every dollar spent, while EY, the perennial also-ran of the Big Four when it comes to Australian governments contracts, has to settle for just $340.
As the big consulting firms have come to dominate donations, 2018-19 marked the end of a long era of big bank donation dominance.
With the Liberal Party having for the most part ended its decades of regulatory protection for the banks, both the Commonwealth Bank and ANZ have now joined the NAB in not donating to political parties at all.
Only Westpac handed just over $200,000 to the parties — split $125,000 to the Coalition and $75,000 to Labor.
Macquarie Bank, which is a traditional big donor and which escaped the odium of the banking royal commission, gave $130,000 to Labor and $125,000 to the Coalition (reversing a trend in recent years to favour the Coalition).
Big bank front group the Financial Services Council also had a relatively quiet year, donating just $87,000. The Australian Banking Association has lifted its contributions in recent years and gave $98,000 to the parties, but remains a relatively minor player.
As the big four banks have withdrawn from the donations game, they’ve been replaced with another foursome even bigger and potentially more lucrative — lucrative for both political parties, and the donors themselves.
Not at all unlike the marketing spiel of the evangelical prosperity religions : “plant a little seed capital with my campaign fund and the gods of Canberra will reward you with a high return out of public revenues”.
And not criticised as often as rorting sports and other funds.
Another “quid pro quo” scandal of epic proportions. No wonder the LNP governments grasp with open hands the concept of privatisation over in-house public servants. I don’t know how to rectify this disgraceful situation as Labor is not much better. Unless something radical is done to fix the system even the easy going Aussie might be forced to take drastic action.
Wow, a 1500:1 return rate!
For a moment I thought how can I get in on this action?
Then I realised I am. I’m paying out 1500:1 with my taxes. Not only that, I’m paying for someone to undermine my government and further sell me out to other robbers. Oh good.
It just makes my heart sing, with despair.
How have our politicians got so corrupt in mind and deed as they have become and so quickly?
The banks stopped donating but, the audit firms who then over charge them and the government, so that they can donate our money back into a system as crooked as a dogs back leg.
The Liberal party also have access to money from part of the Ramsay estate as they have a vested interest in the introduction of an American system of health.
We are all sitting idly by whilst our health system is being transformed into an American system.
Medicare is almost dead, with the rebates for consultations not reflective of the real cost.
Medicare rebates have certainly not kept pace with inflation and in the same time as politician’s salaries have risen by 45%, the Medicare rebate has risen by 3%.
Most of the public/ private partnership hospitals are created so that the states can cost shift onto the health funds, which will have buckled in the next 5 years
The siting of the public/ private hospitals are in areas that are middle class and white, because that demographic.most likely to have private insurance.
People without Health Insurance are treated as “charity cases”.
This is also in line with the US’ process, which results over time with NO Emergency hospital for huge distances.
The findings are that if you have a car accident in a poor area of town you are 80 times more likely to die than if you suffer the same injuries in a wealthy area of town, due to the distance the injured are transported.
Then our public will find out what it is like to have someone with very limited medical training or none decide, on your medical treatment options dependent upon their assessment of the cost/ benefit ratio for the company you are insured with and not based upon your best interests!
Well good luck to all those who voted for what they thought as their best interests.
Scotty :- What a great little ad for Oz tourism “Where the bloody hell are ya? When in Oz, come to Canberra and drop in to The Ripper Barn – for the cheapest politicians money can buy.”
Where did you get the perception that our politicians were among the cheapest ? For the poor performance we get, any payment at all would be too high.
Those firms are operating against the interest of all Australians. Their deliberations consists of debasement of our local economy, proposing advantages exclusively privy to themselves that insults human nature, and campaigning for entire control to the regulatory systems, which are unforeseeable by many of the general public. There’s a continuance of complicit activities demonstrated, by poorly behaved individuals that act ‘above the law’, including most officials in Governmental Agencies scoping abroad (firms). Systematically no one from these circles, are ever liable or accountable inactively, always remaining victims in their midst. If people were a little more biblical in their ways of morality, most would be sane and sound-minded , though too many are complacent, to ever be involved in such commerce. This note is a proscription to how I feel most feel.