Written by George Williams, Centre board member and University of New South Wales deputy vice-chancellor and professor of law. Originally published in the Australian on March 20 2022. The extreme measures deployed by governments to combat Covid-19 have produced white-hot anger in parts of the community. Vaccination mandates, border closures and lockdowns have fuelled protest… Read More

Clive Palmer has spent more than $31 million since August on political attack advertising for his United Australia Party, dwarfing the outlay of the major parties and putting him on track to fulfil his promise to run the most expensive election campaign in the nation’s history. The advertising blitz in the lead-up to an expected… Read More

Written by Centre board member, George Williams, professor of law at the University of NSW. Originally published in the Australian on 7/3/22 State politics has yet again been tainted by crooked donations. The Independent Commission Against Corruption made findings of corruption last week against people including former NSW Labor MP Ernest Wong over attempts to… Read More

Written by ABC political reporter Matthew Doran and originally published on February 7 2022 A national anti-corruption commission will not be established before the next federal election. Prime Minister Scott Morrison first announced a Commonwealth Integrity Commission (CIC) in December 2018, alongside then attorney-general Christian Porter.  Despite years of consultation and draft legislation being released,… Read More

Written by Han Aulby, executive director at the Centre for Public Integrity. Originally published in the Age Feb 15 2022 This week’s revelation that Independent MP Zali Steggall did not disclose the source of a $100,000 donation from the Kinghorn Family Trust shows that the problem of hidden money in politics goes beyond the major… Read More

Written by Rob Harris on Feb 7 2022. Originally published in the Age. The chances of a long-promised federal integrity commission being established by May could well be a neat analogy with Scott Morrison’s current predicament. The clock is ticking and there mightn’t be much time left. An admission from federal Attorney-General Michaelia Cash on… Read More

Written by Georgie Moore AAP. Originally published: 07/02/2022 Scott Morrison has indicated there’s still time for the federal government to bring on its legislation for an integrity commission, as his attorney-general insists it cannot act without Labor’s support. The government is prioritising its bill to boost discrimination protections for religious Australians over a Commonwealth Integrity… Read More

Written by Sarah Ison on Feb 9 2022. Originally published in the Australian The government has narrowly avoided a push from independent, Greens and Labor senators to debate a rival anti-corruption bill in the upper house, with the move being blocked after a tied vote in the Senate. Independent senator Rex Patrick on Wednesday morning… Read More

This editorial was published in the Age on February 3 2022 As robust as we have thought it to be, democracy is not immune to breakdown. Just this week, it was revealed that during the last US election then president Donald Trump played a role in requesting that national security agencies take control of voting… Read More

Written by David Crowe and originally published in the Age on February 7, 2022 Labor leader Anthony Albanese will go to the election telling voters the only way to ensure integrity in politics is to elect a new government after Attorney-General Michaelia Cash shelved a promise made three years ago to create a federal anti-corruption… Read More

Written by the Centre for Public Integrity’s Executive Director, Han Aulby, and Research Director, Dr Catherine Williams. Originally published on Feb 2 2022 Continuing his trend of exposing the weaknesses of Australia’s democracy, Clive Palmer recently announced that his United Australia Party will run the most expensive campaign in Australian history at this year’s election, surpassing the… Read More

Written by Michael Kelly and originally published in the Australian Financial Review on Feb 3 2022 Holding Redlich was the biggest law firm donor to political parties in 2020-21, with its administrative arm – Justice Services Pty Ltd – contributing more than $130,000 to the Labor Party. Big contributions during the Queensland state election pushed… Read More

More than $68 million in unexplained money flooded into political parties in the past financial year, making up almost 40 per cent of all donations, with integrity advocates warning the secrecy around who donates to Australia’s political powerbrokers must end. An analysis from the Centre for Public Integrity published on Friday found the hidden money,… Read More

The final disclosures of political donations to be published before the election show the source of more than half of the money is hidden by loopholes. By Hannah Ryan and originally published in the Saturday Paper on February 5 2022 The most generous donation given to the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party last financial year… Read More

Former top judge Anthony Whealy, who now heads an independent think tank, said the top 10 donors funded almost a quarter of all donations, but a significant portion of political funding was “shrouded in secrecy.” Businessman Anthony Pratt was the biggest political donor in the last financial year, handing almost $1.3 million to the Liberal… Read More

Nearly a quarter of all political donations across the 2020/21 financial year came from just 10 sources, renewing calls for reform. Newly published Australian Electoral Commission data shows the Liberal and National parties reaped nearly $84 million combined, while Labor received more than $67.3 million Just 10 donors accounted for more than $4.2 million, or… Read More

More than a third of the cash flowing to the Liberal and Labor parties is coming from shadowy entities that can hide the true source of the funds, according to a new analysis that shows the main parties collected $1.2 billion over the past two decades. The property industry led the list of business sectors… Read More

The Liberal, National and Labor parties have strengthened their financial positions ahead of this year’s federal election, with big money flowing from the resources and pharmaceutical/medical sectors. But the source of the vast majority of funding going to political parties and campaigners is hidden from the public under existing disclosure laws, with just $17.9 million… Read More

Anthony Pratt’s Pratt Holdings was the biggest political donor in the last year, tipping $1.3m into Liberal party coffers ahead of the 2022 election. The Australian Electoral Commission released disclosures for the 2020-21 financial year on Tuesday, revealing significant donations to upstart political movements including $1m to conservative lobby group Advance Australia and $300,000 to… Read More