Banks curry favour in Canberra

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From the SMH:

The big four banks outweighed the mining sector in corporate donations to the major political parties in the lead-up to last year’s election, while the Labor Party was ahead overall in the fundraising stakes by nearly $3 million on June 30 last year.

Australian Electoral Commission data show the Labor Party’s total receipts were ahead of the Liberal Party at the close of the 2012-13 financial year, at $13.8 million to $11.4 million. The Liberal Party was also in slightly more debt as it geared up for the 2013 federal election campaign.

The Cormack Foundation, a Victorian-based group that fundraises and invests in the stock market on behalf of the Liberal Party, received a total of $3.3 million in donations from corporate Australia in the 2012-13 financial year and gave $1.5 million to the party.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia gave a combined total of $938,600 during the financial year to the foundation, while National Australia Bank gave $616,693 and Wesfarmers gave $484,364.

The next-biggest donor to the Liberal Party after the Cormack Foundation was Roslyn Packer, wife of the late Kerry Packer, with a $570,000 donation.

Westpac Banking Corp gave the Labor Party its biggest single donation of $1.5 million, followed by a second donation of $750,000 and a third of $500,000. Poultry group Inghams Enterprises was the party’s second-biggest corporate donor with $250,000.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.