Malcolm Turnbull may have donated $1.75 million to the Liberals’ election campaign, but Labor MPs divert approximately double that amount from their taxpayer-funded salaries into party coffers every year.
Labor’s finance spokesperson Jim Chalmers confirmed this morning that the party requires its members to contribute between 4 and 6 per cent of their salary to the ALP if they are elected to state or federal parliament, widely known as a “parliamentary levy".
He said this kind of political contribution was on a “much smaller scale” than the Prime Minister’s donation.
"It's a small levy that the state branches levy on the members of state and federal parliaments,” he told ABC Radio National.
Calculations by SBS News based on Mr Chalmers’ comments show that every year Labor MPs channel more than $2.3 million of their salaries, based on a 4 per cent levy applying to Labor’s state and federal MPs' base salaries. These calculations exclude top-up amounts for ministerial or committee work.
This amount - paid for by all taxpayers - flows from elected Labor representatives into the political arm of the party. The taxpayer-funded war chest may then be used for advertising campaigns, such as the 2016 strategy targeting Medicare.
When presented with the numbers, a spokesman for Mr Chalmers told SBS News his comment about donations being on a “much smaller scale” referred to individual donations, and not the combined effect of the Labor levy mechanic.
The national Labor Party branch did not report any donations from MPs in the 2015-16 Electoral Commission information released this week, nor did any of the branches in the eight states and territories.
Pledges by MPs are recorded under more onerous disclosure schemes, such as the system in South Australia. Premier Jay Weatherill paid $21,656.58 to the Labor Party in 2015-16 and backbenchers contributed more than $10,000.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the annual levy for federal Labor Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen in 2015-16 was $10,839.90.
If the 345 Labor state and federal MPs pledged $10,000 on average, annual taxpayer-funded political donations for the Labor Party may be double the amount that Malcolm Turnbull pledged to the Liberal Party during the 2016 election.
