Party convinced Heritage Bank to hand over account statements despite nominated officer refusing to authorise it

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

One Nation has said an investigation into its affairs by the Australian Electoral Commission was “normal” despite the party scrambling to provide bank records from the past three years.

One Nation has convinced Heritage Bank to hand over its account statements despite the nominated officer – its former treasurer, Ian Nelson – refusing to provide authorisation.

Nelson told Guardian Australia he became aware of the audit, first reported by the Australian on Thursday, when the party’s current federal treasurer, Greg Smith, told him the AEC was “driving him crazy” requesting bank statements for the 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years.

Smith asked Nelson, dumped from the party in August after disagreements with Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby, to give authorisation for Heritage Bank to release account statements because he was still nominated as the officer responsible for the old bank account.

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Nelson refused, citing the fact the AEC had not directly asked him to give the authorisation and because he had left copies of bank statements at the One Nation office before he exited the party.

On Thursday Smith said the audit was “part of the normal business of the AEC”. He claimed the AEC had not identified any particular electoral provisions it was investigating compliance with, describing it as “a complete audit across the board, [the type] I presume are done across all political parties”. “They have access to our bank records and all that, and any other records they ask of us.”

Smith said Heritage Bank had now provided the party’s account statements and said it was “very good of them” to do this despite him not being the named officer in the bank’s records.

It is understood this was done because the account is in the party’s name, allowing the bank to release them to Smith now he has taken over as treasurer from Nelson.

A spokesman for Heritage Bank said it had acted “in compliance with its policies, obligations and legal requirements in relation to these requests for information on accounts we previously held”.

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AEC compliance audits fall into four categories, investigations of:

a sample of annual disclosure returns lodged by political parties

gifts of more than $25,000

possible offences under section 315 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act for failing to lodge a return

whether an entity is an associated entity.

A spokesman for the AEC refused to nominate the nature of the investigation into One Nation. He said it conducted a “regular program of compliance reviews” but any matters arising from them would be “addressed directly with the party or entity concerned”.

“Any updates to disclosure returns as a result of this process are then published on the AEC website for public inspection.”

Vicland, the company of a Melbourne property developer, Bill McNee, declared a gift of $57,720 to One Nation in the first half of 2015. The company paid 12 months’ rent in advance for the party’s Brisbane office and $10,000 leading up to the 2016 election.

As at November 2016, One Nation in Queensland had received only four other donations since July 2012, totalling $35,150, according to electoral commission returns.

Hanson herself was forced to lend the party $190,000 for the campaign in the months before the federal election, where One Nation gained four senators and a swag of double-digit primary vote returns across Queensland electorates.

One Nation received $1.75m in public funding from the AEC for its share of the vote at the 2016 election.