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A pile of money
Political parties have declared donations worth $16.7m in the 2017-18 financial year. Photograph: Carolyn Hebbard/Getty Images/Flickr RF
Political parties have declared donations worth $16.7m in the 2017-18 financial year. Photograph: Carolyn Hebbard/Getty Images/Flickr RF

Political donations plunge to $16.7m – down from average $25m a year

This article is more than 5 years old

Australia’s parties declare donations, with largest gift of $2.3m going to the Liberals

Liberal and Labor parties urged to disclose political donations in real time

Australian political parties declared donations worth $16.7m in the 2017-18 financial year, according to the latest figures from the Australian Electoral Commission.

This amount is lower than usual, with donations averaging $25.2m a year over the past 11 years.

The largest donation overall, $2.3m, was made by Vapold Pty Ltd to the Liberal party.

The party with the most donations was the Liberal party, which declared $7.6m, followed by the Labor party with $7.1m.

The Labor party also declared $33.2m in “other receipts”, which includes money received from investments, but also includes money from party fundraisers where people pay for event tickets in lieu of donations.

Chart of donations over time

The Liberal party declared $21.4m in other receipts, the Greens declared $6.0m, and the Nationals declared $4.3m.

The top five donors to the Liberal party were:

Vapold Pty Ltd – $2.3m

Pam Wall – $208,500

Liberal party of Australia, NSW division Cook Endeavour forum – $200,000

Ian Wall – $188,500

Waratah Group (Australia) Pty Limited – $175,000

The top five donors to the Labor party were:

Electrical Trades Union – $940,000

Progressive Business – $735,200

1973 Foundation Pty Ltd – $521,537

SA Progressive Business Inc – $520,000

Labor Services & Holdings Pty Ltd – $250,000

The top five donors to the Greens were:

Chilla Bulbeck – $500,000

Estate of the late Jay Birnbrauer - $334,793

Electrical Trades Union – $200,000

Duncan Turpie – $100,000

Barbara Trauer – $48,875

The top five donors to the National party were:

Manildra Group of Companies – $120,000

Gulf Coast Pty Ltd – $50,000

Ganra Pty Ltd – $30,000

Richard Noble – $24,300

Retail Guild of Australia – $22,000

This story was generated by ReporterMate, an experimental automated news reporting system. You can report errors or bugs to nick.evershed@theguardian.com

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