Icac emails shed light on escalating political funding arms race
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Version 0 of 1. The vivacity could be touching if it wasn’t also emblematic and unsettling. Lindsay Partridge, chief executive of Brickworks – one of the Liberal party’s most generous donors – is angling for a selfie with “Tony” to match his picture with John Howard, a spot of trophy hunting from a political enthusiast. This is July 2010, and the federal election “Tony” would eventually lose by a whisker to Julia Gillard, is in full swing. Paul Nicolaou, the Liberal party’s chief fundraiser, is terribly sorry for the late notice, but he’d like to know if Patridge would join an intimate group for a meal at the Hunters Hill home of ethanol king Dick Honan. Honan is a man of perpetual influence in Australian politics, and despite the criss-crossing continental commitments election campaigns inevitably throw up, Tony Abbott would be there. The door charge for this “very private dinner” is $5,000 a pop. Partridge can manage that, as it happens. He’d like a memento. “Send me the details,” the Brickworks chief tells Nicolaou. “Will I get a photo with Tony like I got from John Howard?” Sadly the soiree was a washout. Nicolaou apologises for the late cancellation. “Beyond my control unfortunately.” But the Liberal party still won the day. As Partridge confirmed in separate correspondence on 29 July, there was $250,000 en route for the cause, including $50,000 for New South Wales “via the diversionary organisation”. There wasn’t only the federal contest to consider, an election in NSW loomed the following year. The disarmingly frank conversation between the businessman and the political money man was, of course, meant to be private. But it has surfaced in a batch of correspondence made public by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Icac is currently diving deep into political donations practices in New South Wales, examining whether or not the Liberal party has used one of its fundraising vehicles, the Free Enterprise Foundation, to “wash” or mask donations that would be illegal if provided direct to the party organisation in NSW. Since December 2009, it has been illegal for property developers to make campaign contributions in NSW. Property developers are the stalwarts of Australian political fundraising, so the shift in Sydney was fundamental and consequential. The change was implemented by the then Labor premier Nathan Rees. No such prohibition exists at the federal level. The correspondence made public by the Icac process sheds light on the inelegant and seat-of-the-pants scramble for cash that the escalating Australian political fundraising arms race promotes. It’s a culture that party organisations are addicted to given the escalating costs of campaigns, and the war chests amassed by third-party enemies. But it’s a culture fast bringing the intrinsically noble practice of politics into disrepute with the voting public, who feel excluded from big money transactions and the suboptimal public policy cycles they perpetuate. It’s a money-go-round. Fundraisers tap reliable donors for cash, providing the suited minglers and shakers with a steady diet of “intimate dinners for 12 with leading decision makers” in five-star hotels and private homes. It’s a business where hustle and chutzpah soundly trumps dignity. Funds can be moved around within structures at the federal, state and local levels to oil the various campaign machines, particularly in the all-important “targeted seats”. The inconsistencies in rules in the various jurisdictions evidently exposes the system to the risk of gaming. The commission has already heard various allegations that donations from restricted sources made their way to the NSW state organisation after the ban in 2009, and the donations were allegedly funnelled through the Free Enterprise Foundation, an “associated entity” of the Liberal party. It wasn’t just Brickworks. The trove of emails record an intention by developer Harry Triguboff to donate $50,000 to the party via the Free Enterprise Foundation, with half the funds to distributed federally and half to NSW. Liberal party federal director Brian Loughnane was copied on the correspondence flagging Triguboff’s intent. On receipt of that news, former NSW MP and federal treasurer of the Liberal party Michael Yabsley tells Nicolaou he’s glad Harry has had a “mood change” because a “few months ago he was utterly dismissive of making political donations again”. Nicolaou also copies Loughnane into an email noting the cash from Brickworks in July 2010 to be paid federally and then distributed to state divisions, including NSW, for the purpose of federal campaigning. “In addition, I spoke to Lindsay Partridge from Brickworks last night and he is arranging for $100K to be EFT’d into the Federal Division bank account today with a further $150k to be distributed equally to NSW, Qld & WA for their respective federal campaigns.” The emails and correspondence pitch readers headlong into the culture and practice of professional politics that sits behind the neat annual disclosure returns published dutifully by the Australian Electoral Commission long after the fact. They snapshot some predictable low-level griping between stretched operatives, a certain level of confusion about various bank accounts, mild passive aggression about having to supply minutes of meetings while on holidays. There’s a finance report where the NSW branch bitches openly about Labor’s property developer ban costing the state operation valuable cash. “We estimate, for example, that the ban on donations by property developers cost us at least $0.5m.” But the same report also notes the party’s success courtesy of the Liberal party’s perceived political momentum with powerful backers, and possibly, courtesy of various workarounds. “Notwithstanding these constraints, we’ve raised in excess of our target for the state election, leaving a surplus as well as financing additional campaign expenditure,” the report notes. As well as providing insights into the specifics of the machinations around corporate donations, the correspondence furnishes a specific window on how modern politics works. The donor to Australian politics isn’t a charitable organisation, engaged in an act of abstract altruism. This is about influence, and being part of an elite conversation. Donors are flattered into believing their feedback important, and sometimes, their insights are important. After the generous donations from Brickworks in the 2010 election year, there is specific strategic guidance from Partridge in 2011. “Tell Tony to stick to his guns on no carbon tax,” Lindsay Partridge tells Nicolaou. “I am running an internal fight with the BCA who seam [sic] to be driven by a few companies who will make bundles out of the tax. Business does want certainty. We want certainty that there is no new tax. Thanks Lindsay.” The feedback is passed on duly to Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, with the observation that Partridge is not only the CEO of the largest brick company in the country but “a very good supporter of the party”. Nicolaou’s prompt suggests Credlin was not, in fact, automatically aware of who Partridge was, but that fact notwithstanding, Credlin is on the hunt for daily question time fodder. The relationship facilitates a direct line of communication. Credlin seeks permission to use thoughts supplied by Partridge during a trip to France. The impact of carbon pricing on local brick production then merges into the Coalition’s general political attack against Labor’s clean energy package, and Partridge’s business is used as a backdrop for press events. Rees reflected recently on his decision in 2009 to ban the donations from property developers. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald last month, he said he took action because the people of NSW were “entitled to a planning and governance system free of innuendo and corruption”. The prime minister, Tony Abbott, on Monday insisted that all the conduct in his sphere was within the rules. “I am very confident that at all times the federal party has acted in accordance with the rules because that’s what we do,” the prime minister said. |