13th Feb 2018, 3:53 PM – Senate Motions - Donations to Political Parties - Mining and resources

The majority voted against a motion, which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) in McCloy v New South Wales (2015), the High Court found that prohibiting political donations from a certain industry was permissible if the prohibition was proportionate to the risk of actual or perceived corruption,

(ii) a 2016 report from 350.org, found that fossil fuel companies would receive $7.7 billion in rebates and credits for the 2016-17 financial year, had made $3.7 million in political donations since the preceding election, and that this equated to $2,000 in rebates and credits for every $1 donated, and

(iii) in 2016-17, the Liberal, National and Labor parties received at least $477,111 from Woodside Energy, Santos, the Minerals Council of Australia, Whitehaven Coal and Adani Mining; and

(b) calls on the Government to prohibit political donations from mineral resources or mining industry business entities and their industry representative organisations.