From the AFR:
Coal baron Nathan Tinkler and Harry Triguboff of Meriton and tens of other property developers are alleged to have been involved in a “systematic subversion of NSW electoral funding laws” via Liberal Party slush funds.
Geoffrey Watson, SC, counsel assisting, told an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry on Monday that the scheme that would be described in four weeks of hearings only concerned the Liberal Party but the problem of political funding was “inherent” in democracy for all parties.
Mr Watson said property developers, who from 2009 were banned from making donations, instead donated to a company called EightByFive operated by a staffer of former NSW energy minister Chris Hartcher or else through a body called the Free Enterprise Foundation, which was used to “disguise donations from prohibited donors.”
I’m sure they were only giving out of personal generosity.
