Donations to political parties from naughty companies

It is a good thing that the government has - at long last - banned political donations from foreign companies. Now it needs to ban political donations from australian corporations. To my knowledge, only the Greens have acted with integrity, having always refused company donations.

Thirteen companies that paid no tax in 2015-16 made $1.7m in political donations to the Liberal and Labor parties in that year.

The largest of these was Pratt Holdings Pty Ltd, which donated $850,000 and paid no tax on a total income of $2.7bn.

Santos donated $134,584 and paid no tax on a total income of $3.4bn. Chevron Australia Pty Ltd donated $118,225 and paid no tax on a total income of $2.1bn.

Network Ten Pty Ltd donated $103,705 in 2015-16 before going into administration in June 2017 and being bought by the US broadcaster CBS in August.

The remaining nine companies that paid no tax but made donations were: Metro Property Development Pty Ltd ($71,500), Careers Australia Group ($69,550), the National Roads and Motorists Association Ltd ($60,990), Austal Ltd ($59,589), Bluescope Steel Limited ($54,200), Pfizer Australia Pty Limited ($45,600), Origin Energy ($42,703), Transurban Limited ($35,720) and Whitehaven Coal Limited ($22,000).

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/dec/11/greens-single-out-13-companies-that-paid-no-tax-yet-donated-to-major-parties

7 comments

The Government are as guilty as the companies for accepting it

MULTIMILLIONAIRE internet entrepreneur bankrolled the Greens' federal election surge last year by making the largest single political donation in Australian history.

 

Wotif founder Graeme Wood, whose wealth is estimated at $372 million, gave $1.6 million to fund the Greens'.

 

this one-off donation was from the private funds of an individual.  these sorts of donations to political parties are OK, but not donations/bribes from companies with vested interests.

Yes Brocky they are all as bad as each other

 

Some of these companies MAY have legitimate tax deductions due to developing their businesses but the reality is that much of tax avoiding Australia is refusing to pay tax BECAUSE THEY CAN FIND A WAY AROUND IT.  The most laughable is transfer pricing to subsidiary companies in lower taxing or zero tax regimes.  A fraud by anybody's understanding but one that the current government lets go because it is compelled to give its  benefactors who donate to election campaigns tax free earnings.  In any other walk of life politicians who did this would be jailed.

If the current government were a government for the nation it would close offshore tax shelter use and tax at the top marginal rates for companies who defraud us all.  Of course our PM has his substantial money sitting in a tax shelter.  Tells a story.....and the idiots amongst us keep voting for the bastards.  Brocky is one.  There are others.  God help the poor souls.

I find your remarks offensive which under our current 18c laws is an offence .

Rather than encourage you to vote for the Coalition which does not support  my view of freedom of the individual and personal responsibilities I would encourage you to vote for the Conservatives or LDP .

Personally Brocky I don't care who you vote for.  It is your right to make that call.  If you want to talk "offensive" watch your team on the media.  That is offensive.  Decency, honesty and governing for the nation is what ANY government is supposed to do.  That is my lament with this one.  It works primarily for its donors.

What is it you don’t understand ? Since when is this Government my team?

When you push its agenda.  Which is always.

I promote my own views if any political party coincide I will support .

Unlikely.  Lets see if the fat lady sings Brocky.

Drop the tax rate down to 20% and you will end up with a bigger tax take 

also those companies that pay no takes are probably investing in growing their business and therefore taking deductions for accelerated capital allowances and R&D

how right you are mick.

All political parties should be  funded from general revenue.

No overseas donations. No Australian donations. No company donations. No individual donations. No donations whatsoever.

The "influence" problem is then solved.

Especially Union “donations”

 

And especially Big Business "donations"

There are folk on this site that do not respect other people's point of view, they constantly push their own agend's, if you look at both major political party's they are both non representative of the majority of Australian voters, that being said, any politician that intentionally betrays Australia as in Sam Dastrani case should be hauled before the courts and prosecuted, I know that some will say that other politicians from either side of government are guilty of not having Australian voters best interest at heart, but non of them as far as I am aware have betrayed their country in the same way.

fully agree, dastyari should be tarred and feathered, if not shot and so should shorten for not kicking dastyari out of the labor party, it makes the party, labor, as guilty as dastyari himself of selling Australia out to a foreign country, China, then again what does one expect of the labor party, just read labor micky's, the one hiding in these columns under a mask, comments and it will show you clearly they will sell their soul to the highest bidder regardless if it is in or not in the best interest of our great country Australia, god help us if ever labor under shorten takes over the government of this country, we may think we are now badly done by and yes I agree we could do better, however under shorten we will realise that we have left eden for a life in hell.

Lab or Lib both wings of the same bird --

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