Councillor says she did not see Liberal National party donation until after election
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Version 0 of 1. A Gold Coast councillor says she accepts the public could see her election campaign as an independent candidate as “compromised” after she took a $30,000 donation from the Liberal National party. Kristyn Boulton told a Crime and Corruption Commission hearing that she believed until after her election in 2016 that the money was a personal donation from her former employer, the federal Liberal MP Stuart Robert. But Robert told the hearing he made clear to his then electorate officer of almost nine years he would be seeking to channel donations to her through an LNP fundraising arm, the Fadden Forum. The CCC is holding hearings in Brisbane in connection with an ongoing corruption investigation into three local government elections in Queensland last year. The corruption watchdog is probing allegations including that candidates broke electoral laws by effectively campaigning as a group without declaring it to the Queensland electoral commission. Robert said he sought LNP approval at state and federal levels to give $30,000 each to Boulton and another of his longtime staffers, Felicity Stevenson, to run for the council because he wanted to keep rival Labor party associated candidates from “gaining a foothold” in his electorate. The federal MP, who reportedly has been advised by CCC investigators he is not suspected of committing any electoral offences, said it would be “hard to be in my office for such a long time and not understand how we raise money for the Liberal National party” through the Fadden Forum. Boulton claimed she did not see payments tagged “LNP donation” in her campaign bank account record until after the election and she thought the Fadden Forum was a fundraising body for Robert’s re-election. She said she had only seen an LNP electoral disclosure showing it funded her after she took office and she was “still trying to work out what kind of mess I’m in”. The CCC chairman, Alan MacSporran, asked Boulton whether she understood the public may perceive her claims of being an independent as “compromised”. Boulton said, “Looking back in hindsight, yes, I concur … I can see that now. “But was I thinking, feeling and acting like that at the time? Absolutely not.” Robert is the key fundraiser behind the Fadden Forum, which he said collected funds nationally through $1,000-a-month memberships “significantly” in excess of his own campaign needs but has its spending controlled by the state LNP treasurer. He sought approval for donations to his former employees as he regarded their rivals Eddie Sarroff, a previous Labor candidate, and Stacey Schinnerl, the local Australian Workers’ Union organiser, as “seasoned political operators” and keeping Labor figures out of his patch on the Gold Coast was his principal motivation. “The reality is the Labor party uses these footholds to then contest other state and federal seats, which makes my job harder,” Robert said. Asked by counsel assisting the CCC, Glen Rice, if Boulton and Stevenson’s promotion of themselves as “independent” would be compromised by the LNP donations, Robert said it “certainly would’ve helped if that was more widely known”. The Fadden MP said it was “correct” to say the public couldn’t tell the donations came from the LNP if they were listed as from the Fadden Forum on the candidates’ electoral disclosures. Robert said he suggested to the LNP the figure of $25,000 for the candidates as he saw that as the minimum to run a competitive local government campaign. He ultimately asked the LNP to increase that to $30,000 for each after Boulton made a late appeal for another $5,000. “It’s a bit like buying a toy for one child and not the other one,” he said, explaining why he sought the extra $5,000 for Stevenson also. Robert said while he appreciated that “$60,000 is a lot of money” by community standards, “if the Labor party gets a foothold, I’d have to spend a lot more”. The hearings continue from Tuesday. |