Political parties in Australia received a total of 168 million dollars in donations for the 2019-20 financial year.
On Monday, the public got to see where some of that money came from, thanks to data from the Australian Electoral Commission.
Almost 50 per cent of all federal political donations over the last 12 months came from just four companies and one industry group.
The largest single donor was billionaire Clive Palmer's Mineralogy, which gave 5.9 million dollars to the mining magnate's own United Australia Party.
Professor Joo-Cheong Tham from the Centre for Public Integrity describes the results from this report as deeply troubling.
"There is a high level of secrecy in terms of political contributions. Basically, we have hidden money or dark money amounting to more than one-third of the funding."
"We also have a situation where there is an absence of caps on political contributions. This has resulted in a handful of donors dominating political funding. I think it is deeply troubling. Where there is secrecy, there's a risk of corruption, or at the very least, undue influence."
To hear the full report click on the audio link above.
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