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Over the past four years, the University of Wollongong has donated more than $25,000 to major political parties, with the Coalition receiving the lion's share of the windfall. Donations in the form of tickets to fundraising dinners and lunches with politicians contributed $26,175 to major party election funds, with the majority, more than $21,000, given to the NSW and federal branches of the Liberal Party. Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws show UOW paid $2000 for a single ticket to an event with now federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne. A UOW spokesman defended the imbalance in donations, saying the university simply received more invitations to Liberal Party functions than Labor ones. Speculation around potential conflicts of interest have arisen from UOW's ties to the Liberal Party. UOW's director of government relations Canio Fierravanti was named as a potential conflict of interest in the Senate register by his sister, Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells. Mr Fierravanti said he was not a member of the Liberal Party and UOW maintained Mr Fierravanti had met his obligations in completing annual conflict of interest disclosure forms. Liberal Kiama MP Gareth Ward was a previous member of the University Council while his staffer, Paul Ell, was a member when $1000 was paid for a single ticket to an event disclosed as a "Private Dinner hosted by Gareth Ward". The university denied any conflict of interest and said Mr Ward's past membership on the council "didn't imply a current conflict of interest obligation on Mr Ward". When contacted by the Mercury, the NSW Liberal Party said it was a matter for the university to determine and register any conflict of interest. A subsidiary of UOW, SMART Infrastructure, made $3000 in donations to the major parties in NSW in 2010 with two-thirds going to Liberal MPs, including the now Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian. The government-funded SMART Infrastructure group was hired by the NSW government transport agency to benchmark infrastructure costs. Previously, the university said that attendance at party functions was to gain an understanding of major public policy commitments proposed by political parties. Donations to the Coalition outweighed those made to Labor prior to the Liberal government's election in NSW.

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