The Liberal Party hoovered up $165 million in donations and other revenue in the year leading up to the federal election, surpassing Labor by more than $40 million.

Key points: Political parties received more than $430 million in donations and other receipts in 2018-19

The period included the 2019 election, driving annual revenue to a record high

The Liberal Party attracted close to $40 million more than Labor

The Coalition also benefited from Clive Palmer's $90 million United Australia Party blitz ahead of the May poll.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) released donations disclosures for 2018-19 on Monday, detailing the financial flows behind the 2019 election.

The documents showed parties recorded more than $430 million in revenue, easily eclipsing the previous single-year record of $279 million in 2013-14.

The last three-year period exceeded the preceding one by close to $150 million.

Behind Labor's $126 million, the Greens received $20 million, the Nationals $16 million, Australian Conservatives $3.6 million and One Nation $3 million.

Top donors revealed

The Liberal Party's top donor was the Cormack Foundation with $6 million. The organisation was established in the 1980s to invest the proceeds from the sale of radio station 3XY. It has provided regular revenue to the party.

The second-biggest donor was Sugolena Pty Ltd, the company of Sydney philanthropist Isaac Wakil, with donations of $4 million. The Wakil Foundation last year made a $20 million donation to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the largest single donation in the gallery's history.

Pratt Holdings, the company of Visy chairman Anthony Pratt, pledged $1.3m.

Greenfield Foundation, another entity linked to the Liberal Party, tipped in $950,000.

The period also covered the banking royal commission.

Westpac paid more than $4 million in "other receipts", which are not classified as donations by the Australian Electoral Commission but may be income from sales of goods or services, or interest on bank accounts. NAB's other receipts tallied around $3 million.

Westpac spent $130,000 on donations to the Liberal Party. A spokesperson said these figures "reflect payment for participation in legitimate activities where they were assessed to be of direct business relevance to Westpac, including business observer programs attached to annual conferences, policy dialogue forums and other political functions such as speeches and events with industry participants".

No other donor pledged more than $500,000 to the Liberal Party.

Labor's investment bodies included Labor Holdings ($28m), Labor Resources ($15m) and John Curtin House ($19m).

Unions such as the CFMMEU tipped in more than $3 million, while Pratt Holdings contributed $1.6m — more than it gave to the Liberals.

The Labor Party also received more than $2 million in "other receipts" from Westpac, as well as $70,000 in donations.

Tobacco giant Philip Morris donated $24,062 to the National Party of Australia in 2018-19, amid a growing debate over whether nicotine vaping products should be legalised in Australia.

As of June 30 2019, Clive Palmer's United Australia Party owed Google Australia more than $8 million.

The businessman's election effort was notable for its relentless online advertising campaign, with a deluge of ads on YouTube and across Google's advertising services.

A spokesperson for Mr Palmer said the account has subsequently been paid in full.

Focus on delay

The release of this information comes some nine months after the 2019 election.

The delay is longer than that in some other jurisdictions. For example, Queensland's near-real-time disclosure system was in place for the 2017 election.

Federal crossbenchers and the Labor Party have sought to improve the timeliness of donations and reduce the threshold above which donations are required to be disclosed.

Although foreign donations were banned by the federal government in 2018, other reforms have not progressed.

Search the donors

Note: The data is extracted from the AEC website. It is based on donor returns. Donors were required to disclose contributions about $13,800 for the year, though some also noted lower amounts.