Posted by Clive Palmer’s mining company, Mineralogy, has again topped the list of political donors, funnelling $7.1m into his one-senator party, the United Australia party, in the year after the federal election.
Annual political returns, released by the Australian Electoral Commission on Thursday, show Palmer gave 10 donations to the minor political party over the course of the year totalling $7.1m. The United Australia party, which has one elected member in the senate, then spent $2.5m during the 2022-23 financial year.
The major parties reported $210.7m in donations and other receipts – which include fees to attend the parties’ business forums, public funding from the AEC and other payments.
Labor received $84.4m, the Liberal party $112.7m and the Nationals $13.6m.
The Greens recorded $25.6m for the year, an increase of $3m on the federal election year.
Labor’s publicly disclosed figure was almost $220m – a $100m increase on the previous year’s sum – but this was due to an error by the ACT branch which reported it had raked in $136.5m. When contacted by Guardian Australia they said it was a typographical error and an amendment to reduce the final figure to $1.3m would be submitted to the AEC.
Donations over the amount of $15,200 require public disclosure while those under the threshold are added to total amounts but their identities remain hidden.
Other top donors post-federal election included the Cormack Foundation, a Liberal-aligned funding body, who donated $3.5m million to the party.
Anthony Pratt’s Pratt Holdings donated a $1m sum to Labor but did not do the same for the Liberal party as he has done in previous years.
The Greens received two donations from the David Walsh Estate totalling $437,000.
after newsletter promotion
Beyond the political parties, significant third parties also raked in donations despite it not being a federal election year.
Advance Australia, the conservative lobby group which played a key role in the no campaign during the voice referendum, doubled its receipts to $5.2m.
Its biggest donor was a Perth-based company, Hadley Holdings, which handed over more than a million to the group.
According to Advance’s declaration, $4.5m was spent on electoral expenditure over the financial year, which included the months leading up to the referendum.
Teal-funding group, Climate 200, also reported receiving $4.7m for 2022-23, spending $1.1m on electoral expenditure.