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| LNP president Gary Spence. Picture: Annette Dew |
8:13PM August 21, 2017
Michael McKenna
Reporter Brisbane @McKennaattheOz
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/queenslands-lnp-forced-to-reveal-donors/news-story/a65defac27c5947c467755462a438e71
Queensland’s Liberal National Party has been hit with legal action by the state’s electoral commission to force the party to disclose the source of more than $100,000 in donations.
In an extraordinary move, the Electoral Commission of Queensland has filed the Supreme Court law suit after a two-year tussle with the LNP over its failure to reveal the identities of the donors.
The action is set to explode in state parliament on Tuesday with the Palaszczuk government previously accusing the LNP of trying to hide the source of the 28 donations — which range from $1100 to $10,000.
The donations were made in 2014 after the LNP Newman government had raised the declaration threshold from $1000 to $12,800, and the donations did not have to be declared.
But after Labor won power in 2015, the Palaszczuk government reversed the declaration limit back to $1000 and made the changes retrospective, requiring the donations be declared and the LNP resubmit its return to the ECQ.
The LNP has previously claimed it could not find the names of donors with some of the donations which were made as bank deposits with no identifying details included in the transfer.
In 2015, Electoral Commissioner Walter van der Merwe told a Budget Estimates hearing that he was seeking Crown law advice on the issue.
“We have requested that information. The LNP said that information was not available. But we will pursue it,’’ Mr van der Merwe said at the time.
LNP president Gary Spence could not be contacted on Monday night.
The action was filed in the Supreme Court last month, and will be the subject of a directions hearing on Tuesday.
Former LNP president Bruce McIver has previously said the LNP had made every effort to declare the donations.
“The 28 donations were just some of more than $4.7 million worth of donations made to the party last year,” Mr McIver said.
“The LNP has made every effort to comply with Labor’s retrospective laws and provide names of donors during the period when the higher threshold existed.
“In a comparatively small number of cases because names were not required to be recorded at the time, the Electoral Commission of Queensland has accepted that it has not been possible to provide some names.’’
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