news, act-politics

Controversial Indian mining firm donated $35,000 to the federal branch of the Liberal party, despite incorrectly reporting the funds went to the Canberra Liberals. The annual release of Australian Electoral Commission records of political donations nationally took place on Friday, revealing the mining company made three payments to the Liberal Party in late 2017. The mining firm is behind a controversial proposal to create what would be Australia's largest coal mine in the Galilee Basin in Queensland. But the mining company's donations returns given to the federal commission named the party's ACT branch as the recipient - despite the company late on Friday confirming the funds actually went to the federal branch. ACT branch president John Ciesla said the ACT branch had no record of any donations from Adani Mining, and as such, did not need to disclose donations it had not received. He said the mining company may have incorrectly labelled their donations returns given to the federal commission as being to the ACT branch of the party, when the money may have instead been donated to the party's federal branch. Despite the company's returns to the electoral commission correctly citing the ACT branch post office box, a company spokeswoman said the company had donated the funds to the federal Liberal Party. She said after it came to their attention on Friday that 'an administrative error was made', the company on Friday corrected its declaration to reflect the fact the federal branch received the funds, not the ACT branch. The figures released show Adani Mining made two donations to the party worth a total of $22,500 on September 15, 2017, with a further $12,500 donated on November 13, 2017. While the national commission's records are less complete than the ACT commission's given the higher threshold for disclosure, they show the Liberals reported $383,814 in donations in 2017-18, compared with ACT Labor's $1,675,731. Labor's finances continued to be largely underwritten by donations from its associated entity, 1973 Foundation, which gave the party two donations of $486,331 and $521,537; and $30,000 from the Community and Public Sector Union. The Canberra Liberals' return was dominated by 'other receipts' from LJ Hooker Commercial, which gave about $96,000, and PwC, which gave $51,900 in other receipts. The ACT Greens reported no donations above the federal threshold in 2017-18, though they did report $121,630 in donations and receipts that financial year to the territory commission. Adani Mining also declared a donation of $15,000 to Pauline Hanson's Queensland-based One Nation party in May 2018. The federal Liberal party and ACT Electoral Commission did not respond to questions on Friday.

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