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).
The Government are as guilty as the companies for accepting it