LNP President Gary Spence has announced a high court challenge to the Queensland government's developer donations ban, saying it's a "shocking abuse of power".
The laws were introduced by the Palaszczuk Labor government earlier this year in the wake of a corruption watchdog review of local-council-level graft.
The LNP argued the laws should apply to union donations as well, and party President Gary Spence told the party's annual convention in Brisbane t
hat documents were lodged on Friday afternoon to challenge the laws.
"This is legislation that should never have been introduced and should never have passed the House," Mr Spence told the convention on Saturday.
"It is a shocking abuse of power by Labor and we simply must fight it."
The LNP president has a personal stake in the issue, as he owns a small development company, and could be forced to resign his position with the party if the laws are upheld.
Despite that issue, he was re-elected unopposed as the party's president by the convention on Saturday.
State Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath said the move showed the LNP were "fighting against transparency".
"It shows the LNP will do anything to hide their donations, including spending tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to fight the laws," Ms D'Ath said in a statement.
"At a time when Queenslanders are wanting more transparency around donations, the LNP will stop at nothing to avoid the public knowing."
The law change was one of the recommendations out of the Operation Belcarra report which found widespread non-compliance with political donation rules in the 2016 local government elections.
The report only recommended developer donations be banned for local governments, but the government extended the ban to cover state politics as well.
Share
