Australian Hotels Association gave highest amount in seven years, with bulk going to Liberal and National parties

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The liquor, hotels and gaming lobby made its highest level of donations in seven years in 2017-18, pumping more than $1m into the Liberal, Labor and far-right parties.

Harm-reduction groups have renewed their calls for the industry to be banned from making federal donations, saying the money is warping policy and being used to thwart tax and advertising reform.

The Australian Hotels Association gave $1,013,625 in donations across the political spectrum in 2017-18, donations data shows.

The sixty million dollar man: how Clive Palmer is funding his own political resurrection Read more

It is the highest amount of donations since 2010-11, when it donated $1,207,304, and is more than 10 times the amount it gave in 2016-17, according to a Guardian Australia analysis.

The Liberal and National parties received the bulk of the money, taking in $619,190 compared with Labor’s $347,213.

The AHA gave $38,600 to Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives, $4,480 to One Nation and $3,642 to Katter’s Australia party.

The spike in donations coincided with the Tasmanian election, where Labor’s plan to ban pokies sparked a significant industry backlash. About $270,000 was given to the Tasmanian Liberals by the AHA, according to the returns. The spike also coincided with the lead-up to the recent New South Wales election and, to a lesser extent, the current federal election campaign.

Late last year an extensive study published in the Drug and Alcohol Review, a peer-reviewed medical journal, showed that donations from the gambling, alcohol and tobacco industries were targeted during critical policy debates or immediately before elections.

Donations increased during debates that threatened to financially impact the industry, including during the alcopops debate in 2008 and 2009, the study found.

A Senate inquiry into money and political influence chaired by the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, last year recommended donations be banned from tobacco, liquor, gambling and other industries.

The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (Fare) chief executive, Michael Thorn, said the industry was highly regulated, and its profits increased where it could minimise red tape. That made donations from the sector particularly problematic, he said.

“I think there is a body of evidence from around the world that shows the influence of these harm-causing industries – alcohol, junk food, gambling – is directly related to the amount of regulation, so they are keenly interested in minimising regulation on their industries,” he said.

“It seems to me that there’s enough evidence on the table to say that [donations] have an effect on the decisions, so therefore our position is that those donations should be banned as they are in NSW, for example.”

High court closes loophole that would have allowed developer donations in federal election Read more

The AHA was approached for comment, but did not respond.

Deep flaws with transparency regimes surrounding donations and lobbying make it hard to tell how else the AHA may be seeking to influence policy. The public cannot see donations made since June, because Australian governments have repeatedly refused to introduce real-time donations disclosure systems, despite such systems already operating at a state level.

Thorn said that if donations from the industry were not banned, the government should introduce real-time donation disclosures.

Any meetings taking place between the AHA and government are also hidden from view, because peak industry groups are not covered by the lobbyist register and ministerial diaries are not published at a federal level, at odds with the practice in Queensland, NSW and the Australian Capital Territory.

Note: The analysis of the AHA donations included all branches of the organisation and all party divisions, federal and state. It relied on donations disclosures made by the AHA to the AEC, rather than the declarations of the party organisations. The data was accessed through democracyforsale.net