[ad_1]
Clive Palmer’s mining company donated $116m to United Australia party in 2021-22
Christopher Knaus
Clive Palmer’s mining company Mineralogy donated $116m to the United Australia party in the year of the 2022 federal election, newly released data shows.
The Australian Electoral Commission has just published its annual dump of political donations data for 2021-22.
The belated nature of donations disclosures – this time a full eight months after the May 2022 election – has been the subject of frequent criticism by integrity and transparency campaigners, because it gives voters no understanding of financial influence on parties and candidates before the vote.
The data shows a staggering $116m worth of donations to Palmer’s United Australia Party, including two individual donations of $50m and $30m.
The total receipts declared by the UAP is the highest in any single year by a single party, though the major parties have declared more when their various state and territory branches are grouped together.
The UAP also recorded an expenditure of $123.5m in the 2021-22 year.
The donations all came from Mineralogy, Palmer’s Queensland-based mining corporation.
The figure far outstrips the $83.7m Palmer’s company donated to the UAP ahead of the 2019 election.
The UAP annual return also shows it has debts of $9.3m to Google Australia and $751,902 to News Corp.
The volume of the UAP’s donations and expenditure has prompted persistent calls for donation and expenditure caps, to limit the influence of money in the democratic process.
Key events
Filters BETA
Fyles said reinstating liquor bans is still an option “on the table” but says it would still only be a short term solution, not the long term measure that is needed. However, she notes that already she’s been briefed by police that the interim measures introduced in the crisis meeting last week are making a difference on the ground.
Fyles says the the report being handed down today is not the end of the discussion but the beginning of a process to drive “generational change”:
Looking forward, this report is not the end of it. This report is the beginning of that journey. The alcohol management plans will vary from community to community, and it is much more than alcohol. It is around those services that provide support and drive generational change.
Fyles said the report will be made public but “not in the next couple of days.”
‘It’s simply not fair’: NT chief minister calls for more federal funding and help
Fyles is saying that the remoteness of the Northern Territory makes delivering services more difficult, so more federal funding is needed:
The commonwealth need to step up and we need to see needs-based funding. I have said this time and time again – the Northern Territory, based on GST formulas and the cost we have of delivering services, it’s simply not fair. So for people sitting in Sydney and Melbourne, perhaps watching these interview, they have to understand that the cost of service delivery just by the remoteness costs more.
The intensity of the work required will cost more and we can’t do it alone as a Northern Territory government.
Faced with questions about the balance of funding between Darwin and remote areas, Fyles says she is open to the Productivity Commission conducting an audit. But she does not accept that money has been disproportionately spent in the past in Darwin.
Reporter:
There’s long been criticism that Northern Territory governments take that GST money from the other states, from Canberra, and they spend it disproportionately on things in Darwin at the expense of those remote communities. If you’re asking for more funding, would you be willing to let the Productivity Commission do an audit?
Fyles waits for a plane to pass overhead before responding:
Yes, I would be very open to accountability around this. We want to change these issues for the next generation. We want to fix the issues we have now and we know that that is investment and we would certainly welcome measures that allow for us to have an understanding of the investment we’re placing and how that is achieving the change we require.
NT chief minister says former federal government ‘walked away’
Natasha Fyles continues to face the heat from the press about the role her NT government could have played in intervening earlier after the Stronger Futures legislation lapsed. But the chief minister remains adamant the failure lies with the previous federal Coalition government.
Reporter:
Your government has yesterday released new data on emergency departments in that period between the bans lifting and the end of 2022 which show a 50% spike in ED presentations in Alice Springs during that period. Do you now concede there wasn’t enough done in that period?
Fyles:
So I won’t go back over history for the sake of time, but everyone knows that it was the Northern Territory Government that stepped up and put a measure in place allowing communities to remain dry. It was the commonwealth government, the previous Coalition, that walked away.
In terms of alcohol-related presentations, I meet regularly with emergency doctors and our hospital staff. If you look at July to September, the figures were fairly stable.
There was weeks of spikes, but it was certainly that November/December period where we saw an increase and that is why we continue to be agile with policies and put in place different measures.
Ballot on alcohol bans being discussed, NT chief minister says
Taking questions, NT chief minister Natasha Fyles says the idea of communities voting in a ballot on whether they want opt-in alcohol restrictions is still one option being discussed.
Reporter:
Are you still pushing ahead with this ballot idea?
Fyles:
So that has been discussed. I have discussed that with health professionals. We have a situation where the previous commonwealth government did not reinstate or continue the Stronger Futures legislation and … the intervention suspended the Racial Discrimination Act at a commonwealth level. So it was a race-based policy.
In terms of the opt-in/opt-out situation, we saw a number of communities continue as dry communities whilst they developed alcohol management plans.
The Northern Territory government has done enormous amount of work around local decision-making agreements and listening to Indigenous leadership.
So I believe that one option going forward would be to have a ballot so that everyone can have confidence in whatever the decision is. There can’t be the accusation, if you don’t like the decision, that we didn’t talk to the right people.
Key report on Alice Springs crisis to be delivered today
As we mentioned on the blog earlier, the new central Australian regional controller, Dorrelle Anderson will today hand down her review considering whether opt-in alcohol restrictions should be implemented in the Northern Territory.
The NT chief minister, Natasha Fyles, has begun a media conference a week after the crisis meeting brought federal ministers, including prime minister Anthony Albanese to Alice Springs.
Fyles:
We will provide to the commonwealth later today the agreed report on the actions that have been taken around alcohol and any proposed actions into the future. I will then travel with the attorney general Chancy Paech to Canberra and we will be meeting with the prime minister tomorrow so that we can work through these issues and come up with long-term solutions to change the tragic statistics we see in the Northern Territory, particularly around Indigenous incarceration, disadvantage.
We have been doing an enormous amount of work since we came to government, as has previous territory governments – and we want to make sure that as we step forward that these are thought out and based-on-evidence decisions.
St Mary’s Church wants to remove section of ribbons for Pell’s funeral, activist says
Negotiations continue between St Mary’s Church, police and the group putting up ribbons to remember the victim-survivors of child sexual abuse ahead of the funeral of Cardinal George Pell.
The activist Simon Hunt has told our reporter on the ground, Rafqa Touma, that the church wants to remove a section of the ribbons to keep them out of the shot that will show Pell’s coffin entering the church.
Simon Hunt @PPantsdown is “trying to negotiate with police” over placement of ribbons as we wait for Pell’s coffin to enter the cathedral.
“The church are wanting to remove a section of the ribbons I think to keep the ribbons out of the same shot as Pell’s coffin.” pic.twitter.com/jQ8cbMF9SW
— Rafqa Touma (@At_Raf_) January 31, 2023
Liberals declare donations from Pratt, Hemmes and Isaac Wakil’s Sugolena
Paul Karp
My colleague Nick Evershed informs me across all its divisions the Liberal party has declared $106.7m in donations and other receipts, with a further $11.5m declared by Coalition partner the Nationals.
Among the federal Liberal party’s biggest donations for the 2021-22 year were:
-
$3m donation from the Cormack Foundation, which is an associated entity of the party
-
$1.35m from Anthony Pratt’s Pratt Holdings, making it one of the biggest donors to both majors
-
$700K from Sugolena Pty Ltd, a company linked to philanthropist Isaac Wakil, who made his fortune in the clothing industry and invested heavily in property,
-
$500K Jefferson investments
-
$450K from the Greenfields foundation, which the party also owes $1m
-
$300K from Hemmes trading; and
-
$230K from Meriton
The New South Wales Liberals also declared $100K from Justin Hemmes.
‘Ribbons represent the voices of those who are gone’
My colleague Rafqa Touma is at St Mary’s Cathedral where clergy abuse survivor Paul Auchettl is tying ribbons to make the voices of survivors and victims of child sexual abuse heard ahead of Cardinal George Pell’s funeral.
Paul Auchettl, Ballarat survivor, is outside St Marys Cathedral this morning ahead of Cardinal #Pell’s funeral. His team put up ribbons 5 times before today.
“Each time they took them down, we put them back up … Today, I never dreamt that it would look like a floral carpet.” pic.twitter.com/PxJ84T37vr
— Rafqa Touma (@At_Raf_) January 31, 2023
Auchettl says the “ribbons represent the voices of those who are gone, who are suffering, who have been harmed.”
“It starts a difficult conversation that we hope the church is now willing to come to the table.”
— Rafqa Touma (@At_Raf_) January 31, 2023
Clive Palmer’s mining company donated $116m to United Australia party in 2021-22
Christopher Knaus
Clive Palmer’s mining company Mineralogy donated $116m to the United Australia party in the year of the 2022 federal election, newly released data shows.
The Australian Electoral Commission has just published its annual dump of political donations data for 2021-22.
The belated nature of donations disclosures – this time a full eight months after the May 2022 election – has been the subject of frequent criticism by integrity and transparency campaigners, because it gives voters no understanding of financial influence on parties and candidates before the vote.
The data shows a staggering $116m worth of donations to Palmer’s United Australia Party, including two individual donations of $50m and $30m.
The total receipts declared by the UAP is the highest in any single year by a single party, though the major parties have declared more when their various state and territory branches are grouped together.
The UAP also recorded an expenditure of $123.5m in the 2021-22 year.
The donations all came from Mineralogy, Palmer’s Queensland-based mining corporation.
The figure far outstrips the $83.7m Palmer’s company donated to the UAP ahead of the 2019 election.
The UAP annual return also shows it has debts of $9.3m to Google Australia and $751,902 to News Corp.
The volume of the UAP’s donations and expenditure has prompted persistent calls for donation and expenditure caps, to limit the influence of money in the democratic process.
Federal Labor declares big donations from Pratt Holdings and Clubs NSW
Paul Karp
We’re wading our way through political parties’ financial disclosures for 2021-22.
Labor across its head office and all states and territories appears to have raked in $124m in donations and “other receipts”, which can be everything from fees to attend the party’s business forums, public funding from the AEC, jobkeeper payments from the ATO or any other payment.
One of the ALP’s biggest donors was Pratt Holdings, with two donations totalling $1.75m. It also received two donations from Clubs NSW totally $63K.
The party declared “other receipts” from:
-
The Minerals Council ($102,500)
-
Santos ($69,500)
-
Sportsbet ($120K)
-
St Baker Energy Innovation Trust ($31,900)
Labor’s biggest donors were its union affiliates including the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union and Shop Distributive and Allied Employee Association.
Monarchists oppose No campaign’s plan for change to constitution preamble
On Sunday, the no campaign in this year’s voice referendum revealed that they want to propose a symbolic constitutional recognition of both Indigenous people and migrants via an acknowledgment in the preamble of the constitution.
This morning, the Australian Monarchist League have come out in strong opposition to the idea of the constitution’s preamble being “tampered with.”
Philip Benwell, the national chair of the league released a statement:
We have been given to understand that opponents of the Voice to the Parliament are campaigning for a separate referendum to insert an acknowledgment of both the Indigenous people and migrants to Australia in the preamble of the constitution.
Including such an acknowledgement somewhere in the body of the Australian Constitution is one thing but amending the wording of the Preamble is quite another. The preamble is the introduction to the Constitution that follows and should in no way be tampered with.
The Australian Monarchist League has always been and always will be against any change to the Preamble of the Australian Constitution and we will vigourously oppose any attempt to do so.
Ribbons cut down this morning
Channel Nine journalist Lara Vella shared footage at 6.30amshowing the ribbons being cut down from the gates of St Mary’s cathedral.
Happening now: Ribbons left in honour of survivors and victims of child abuse are being cut down from the gates of St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney ahead of Cardinal Pell’s funeral tomorrow pic.twitter.com/DbPXwxJcvt
— Lara Vella (@vella_lara) January 31, 2023
[ad_2]
Source link
