LNP Accepts Dodgy Donation

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Yvette D’Ath has written to the Queensland Electoral Commissioner after the discovery of documents which suggest the LNP has accepted donations from a developer.

“Will the LNP stop at nothing to get dodgy donations?” Mrs D’Ath said.

“First it was challenging our tough donation laws in court, then it was the Diamond Memberships, and now the party is accepting donations from developers,” Mrs D’Ath said.

“I have asked the Queensland Electoral Commissioner to examine the evidence which strongly suggests the LNP has accepted a donation from a prohibited donor.

“It appears the company sought to hide its behaviour by changing its business name to an Australian Company Number so it could donate $10,000 to the LNP.

“This behaviour appears to be a scheme to circumvent the clear prohibition of developer donations.

“Information obtained from the publicly available data on the ECQ’s real-time-donation site shows significant donations over numerous years.

“Curiously, the donations have been listed under different names, despite ASIC information demonstrating that it is the same entity, operating from the same Toowoomba address, under the control of the same Company Officers.

“I am gravely concerned that such a scheme could be used to try to hide the identity of donors and the acceptance of such donations.”

The maximum penalty for trying to circumvent prohibition on banned political donations is a $200,000 fine or 10 years in prison.

/Public Release. View in full here.