Corporate donations corrupting Government
Newcastle Greens
12 January 2007
Corporate donations – a perceived corrupting influence on Government
The Greens candidate for the state seat of Newcastle, Cr Michael Osborne, questioned the Sydney Labor Government’s decision to award a construction tender to contractor FRH Group to build the Weakley’s Drive overpass.
“The official electoral returns show that Belmadar, which was purchased by the FRH Group in the middle of last year, have consistently made political donations to Sydney Labor since 1999,” Councillor Osborne said.
“It is reasonable that people would be sceptical that the process of awarding the tender has not involved political influence.
“Nobody believes that donations from developers are about philanthropy. In fact, it is a misnomer to even call them donations. They are not donations, they are purchases. Developers are buying influence, they are buying access, and they are buying government policy.
“The Sydney Labor Government should legislate to ban donations from developers so that decisions of government can be made free of direct or perceived inappropriate influence,” Cr Osborne said.
Research by the Greens on developer donations shows the NSW Labor Party has raised $8.78 million from the property sector since 1998-99, and the NSW Liberals and Nationals received $6.35 million.
The Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon introduced a private members bill into the NSW Parliament in 2004 to ban donations from developers. The bill was voted down when the Labor and Liberal parties voted together.
“The Greens will not accept developer donations. I call on John Tate, Jodi McKay and Martin Babakhan to pledge that they too will not accept donations from developers, either directly or indirectly,” Cr Osborne said.
