Something to declare: how much have foreign donors given Australian political parties?

What is the extent of foreign political donations in Australia?

A parliamentary inquiry into foreign donations has recommended banning donations to political parties, although members of the committee disagreed on whether the ban should extend to third parties involved in political campaigning.

The recommendation from the inquiry is:

... a prohibition on donations from foreign citizens and foreign entities to Australian registered political parties, associated entities and third parties. This ban would not apply to dual Australian citizens either in Australia or overseas, or to non-Australian permanent residents in Australia.

This could prevent donations such as the $250,000 given to the Liberal party by Lord Michael Ashcroft, a British Conservative peer, in 2013, or the $850,000 given to the Labor party by Chinese-based Zi Chun Wang in 2013 (assuming that neither are Australian citizens, as they have not given an Australian address in their donation declarations).

However, it’s not yet clear how it would work with a donor such as businessman Chau Chak Wing, who is an Australian citizen but has used a Hong Kong-based company to make donations; or a company that is listed both in Australia and overseas, such as BHP Billiton; or companies with significant local operations that are ultimately foreign-owned.

So how much have foreign donors given to our political parties over the years?

Here we’ve examined donation declarations on the Australian Electoral Commission’s website, identifying donors that are listed at a non-Australian address.

As the address is not always listed on the analysis part of the site, and addresses need to be checked in each individual donation declaration, we’ve limited the analysis to the financial years 2010-11, 2013-14, and 2015-16, which mostly cover the past three federal elections. We’ve also had to limit it to donations over the disclosure threshold, and that are categorised as “donations” by the parties themselves (as opposed to “other receipts”):

The list is dominated by China-based donors, with 14 of the 21 either based in mainland China or Hong Kong. Overall, foreign-based donors gave just over $3m to the Labor and Liberal parties, which is a relatively small portion of the amount they received in donations.

However, an analysis of foreign donors by Joo-Cheong Tham and Malcolm Anderson from Melbourne Law School suggests that if we consider entities that are significantly owned by foreign interests, even if they have an Australian address, the amounts involved increase:

Their analysis suggests the share of donations from an international origin has increased over time to around 6% of total donations.