Cardboard magnate Anthony Pratt was Australia’s biggest political donor for the 2020-21 financial year, data from the Australian Electoral Commission shows. Pratt Holdings, a key plank of the billionaire’s business empire, made a series of political donations to state and federal Liberal Party branches worth $1.29 million.
It’s less than the $1.5 million Pratt gave in 2019-20 and the $3 million in 2018-19, but in a cycle notable for the conspicuous absence of Clive Palmer it was enough to top the big spenders list.
During the donations period, Pratt received a $10 million grant from Australia’s bushfire recovery fund. Prime Minister Scott Morrison referred to Pratt — one of Australia’s richest men — as “the Don Bradman of job creation” in the presence of former US president Donald Trump.
Following Pratt on the list are two political donations worth $1 million to conservative activist group Advance Australia — one from Silver River Investment Holdings ($650,000) and Cartwright Investment Corp Ltd ($350,000).
Silver River Investments’ directors are Simon and Elizabeth Fenwick of Mosman in Sydney. Elizabeth is also listed as the sole director of Cartwright Investment Corp. Simon, a former fund manager, announced his intention to start bankrolling Advance Australia in 2020, citing concerns about “left-wing agendas” and “dictatorial” politicians like Dan Andrews.
Created ahead of the 2019 election as a right-wing GetUp, Advance Australia has recently focused its energy on attacking COVID restrictions and vaccine mandates. Recent Facebook ads claiming Australians were being forced to get vaccinated were removed from the platform.
Also high on the list of donors was the National Automotive Leasing and Salary Packaging Association, which gave $150,000 each to Labor and the Liberals.
The largest individual donor was William Nitschke, who made four donations worth $300,000 to Rod Culleton’s Great Australian Party, which is running conspiracy theorist Pete Evans as a Senate candidate at the election. It’s the second year running in which Nitschke has been the largest individual donor.
Usual suspects like the Pharmacy Guild of Australia ($295,000 between Labor and the Liberals) and the Australian Hotels Association ($260,000 to Labor, Liberals and the Nationals) were prominent donors.
For the Liberals, most political donations flowed from the big end of town. Pratt Holdings was its biggest donor, and property giant Meriton chipped in $285,000. Its biggest individual donation was $224,000 from Scott Edwardes, an unsuccessful candidate at the last Western Australian state election.
Labor’s biggest donor was the National Automotive Leasing and Salary Packaging Association, and key unions like the United Workers Union, Rail Tram and Bus Union, and Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Alliance all poured money into Queensland, where a state election was held in late 2020. In Western Australia, another election state, Labor got $200,000 from Perth Trades Hall, and $110,000 from the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Alliance. Commercial law firm Holding Redlich gave $134,880 to the ALP, the bulk of its money donated.
The Greens’ biggest donor was once again reclusive high-end gambler Duncan Turpie, who gave $110,000. The Nationals’ largest individual donation ($55,000) came from waste management company JJ Richards and Sons. It also received $55,000 from tobacco giant Philip Morris.
Letter in today’s SMH “When a union donates to a political party it is in the hope they develop policies that improve conditions for all of their members and, by extension, all Australian workers. When a corporation donates to a political party, they hope they will develop policies that benefit their shareholders and management and possibly to strip rights from their workers to increase profits.”
It also helps that the Coalition does absolutely nothing about taxing large corporations. The Coalition came out attacking Labor because they said they would look at taxing them.
We must change donating rules. We must be able to see who is donating to whom and how much is being donated immediately.
Well Pratt did well, 3 years of multimillion donations and 10 million from the bushfire fund means he’s still ahead. Continue to be amazed at how cheap it is to buy access to Australian politicians. They spend billions in largesse, plus reduce or limit consumer regulations, provide tax breaks and fight hard to keep wages down. All it costs to be in their ear, showing or encouraging them what to do, is in the tens or hundreds of thousands. The return on investment must often be over 1000 per cent or far better in some areas.
The extra value of the Coalition would be that they generally have no policy ideas so donors have a relatively blank canvas to work on.
One remembers the old adage about the definition of an honest politician, when you buy them they stay bought.
Used to annoy me when Turnbull accused Shorten of being a class traitor by accepting dinner invitations from Pratt, essentially calling him an uppity worker who didn’t know his place. I,, on the other hand, saw it as Shorten meeting all levels of people. Anyone know if Abbott, Turnbull or Morrison has ever had a cup of tea with Sally McManus?
Just testing this, not a comment
Ah yes, I remember that photo-op (one of many for our Dear Leader) with Trump, Pratt and of course our fearless leader….Yes, of course we should have given Pratt lots of money from the Bushfire Recovery Fund …for goodness sake, it’s not like people who’ve lost their homes, animals, livelihoods need it…. especially not the many on the Mid North coast of NSW still living in tin sheds or shipping containers, after enduring months (not weeks as in other areas) of bushfires, that ended almost two years ago up here….Yes, it’s all about ” Priorities” isn’t it?
In all my long years, I’ve never despised State and Federal governments as much as I do, the past ten years or so.
Corrupt and obscene are the two words that come to mind.
Maybe, Australia should be focussing upon the DONORS and less upon political recipients?
As we all know: What goes around comes around. Donor(s) never lose. They are the true recipients. And they control the system solely for there own benefit. Politicians work for the SYSTEM. And we citizens at least, can choose to determine political futures?
Can’t complain about the ROI. $1.5 million invested, $10 million return in a year.