(Transcript from World News Radio)
Are large political donors exerting too much influence over government policy?
That's the claim being made following the release of the major donations received by political parties last financial year.
The figures show both sides of politics received tens-of-millions of dollars in donations from a wide range of industry groups, developers, banks and pharmaceutical companies.
Critics say it shows there's a need for fresh laws governing donations.
Michael Kenny reports.The Australian Electoral Commission's figures show the Labor Party received almost $55-million in donations last financial year, compared with $73 million received by the Liberals.
The Nationals and Greens each received $8 million.
Labor relied to a large extent on unions, which donated over $5 million to the party, while the Coalition received more than $1 million from mining and energy companies.
New South Wales Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon believes there is clear evidence to show that big donors are heavily influencing the major political parties and the decisions they take.
"In New South Wales, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act was amended a number of times over a decade. It went from being a very fine piece of legislation to something that really made it much easier for developers to make quick money from a whole range of changes. Federally we've seen changes to pharmaceutical laws, to laws covering care for aged people that have benefited donors."
Senator Rhiannon believes companies deliberately direct more funding to political parties in government rather than in opposition in a bid to promote their own interests.
She has called on the major parties to join with the Greens in pushing for new laws to ensure greater fairness and transparency.
"The Greens are advocating for an end to corporate donations. The donations should be limited to individuals with tight caps on donations from not for profit organisations. We also need to have clear transparency so people know where the money is coming from and that should be done much closer to an election, rather than having to wait a year or 15 months before the donations are released."
Federal Independent MP Andrew Wilkie shares the Greens' concerns.
He says he is particularly concerned over the influence the poker machine lobby is exerting on the major parties through political donations.
The Electoral Commission figures show the Australian Hotels and Hospitality Association donated over $420,000 to the Coalition last financial year and $22,000 to Labor.
Clubs NSW donated over $200,000 to the Coalition and $120,000 to Labor over the same timeframe.
Mr Wilkie believes these donations have played a fundamental role in blocking his efforts to reform poker machine laws.
The Coalition has also criticised Labor's reliance upon union donations in the latest figures, saying it should refuse to accept donations from unions which have acted corruptly.
Labor frontbencher Jason Clare has defended the party's links to the union movement and says this has long been reflected in donations.
"It's no secret that the unions donate to the Labor Party. It's no secret that cigarette companies donate to the Liberal Party and I'm a lot prouder about unions helping to support people like myself get into parliament to fight for the rights of working people than the Liberal members of parliament should be about taking money from companies that produce products that kill people."
The Electoral Commission data shows the tobacco company Philip Morris donated $107,000 to the Coalition last financial year.
The Coalition no longer accepted any further donations once it won the last election in September.
The Commission data also highlights the substantial contribution made by migrant businesspeople in political donations, especially within the Chinese-Australian community.
This included the property investment firm, the Yuhu Group, owned by Huang Changran, which donated $200,000 to Labor and $100,000 to the Liberal Party.
A Sydney-based grocery importing business, Wei Wah International Trading, owned by Peter Chen, also donated $200,000 to the Labor Party.
And another Sydney Asian grocery shop owner, Luo Changxiong donated $150,000 to Labor.
The Secretary of the Chinese-Australian Forum Tony Pang says many of these businesspeople also make substantial donations to welfare organisations.
He believes they see political donations as a way of making a useful contribution to Australian society, rather than trying to influence government policy.
"I have personally witnessed the generosity of the Chinese community in terms of donations. That happens throughout Asia too. You can't restrict that to Australia. They do donate a lot of money to welfare groups. If they do well, they spread the money around and they believe that it's a good omen to contribute towards welfare groups as well as political parties. It's a common practice among the Asian communities."
