Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Birmingham) to a question without notice asked by Senator Lambie today relating to donations to political parties.

The start of the 2020 financial year was 19 months ago, in July 2019. Our country has changed a lot since then. We've had a once-in-a-century health crisis, we've struggled through brutal economic shockwaves and we've seen the government shovel incredible amounts of money out the door just to try to keep businesses afloat and industries alive. The government has made choices that have benefited some businesses more than others, and that's natural. Sometimes in a crisis you've got to make difficult choices to make sure you can get through it. What worries me, though, is that, through all of that time, the coalition has been taking donations from businesses that might have benefited from the choices it has made. But we don't hear anything about that money until after the decisions are made.

Yesterday we found out that the coalition has had $69 million in donations and other receipts since July 2019. Businesses owned by Mr Anthony Pratt gave them more than $1.5 million, and a mystery organisation called the Greenfields Foundation gave at least $450,000.

That's not a foundation. It is a political donation that is usually just given in a brown paper bag. That's all that is. The ANZ has donated over $100,000. This is the point: donors do not give money out of the goodness of their hearts. They're giving it because they want a chance to bend a minister's ear about what they need to get through the tough times we've had since COVID has hit our shores. They're looking for a chance to make their case, and they're getting levels of access that most small businesses can only dream of. It's no wonder that a person who used to be in charge of policing our political donation laws has come out and said that they're among the worst in the world. It's about time the major parties did the right thing and tidied this up for the good of the country.