The right-wing Liberal club hiding donors and building conservative clout – The Age

A fundraising club linked to the hard-right of the Liberal Party is obscuring its donors by failing to make disclosures to the Australian Electoral Commission as required by law, according to a political donations expert.

The Deakin 200 Club was launched in June 2014 by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, along with right-aligned federal MPs Kevin Andrews, Josh Frydenberg and Michael Sukkar, and then Victorian Liberal Party president Tony Snell.

With membership about $200 a year, the club also hosts regular fundraising events, attracting luminaries such as businesswoman and football identity Susan Alberti.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott will be guest of honour at a club dinner this month, with attendance costing up to $500 per person.

Rising right-wing recruiter Marcus Bastiaan is organising the dinner, which is being promoted to conservative elements of the Victorian branch, Fairfax Media reported last month, and will raise money for Deakin and other marginal seats.

The club's current members as disclosed on their parliamentary registers of interests include conservative Liberals Sukkar, Victorian MLC Richard Della-Riva and federal MP Scott Ryan.

Senator Ryan is also Special Minister of State, with responsibility for the AEC, including the integrity of the disclosure integrity regime.

Despite its fundraising activities, the club has never lodged a disclosure as a so-called "associated entity" of a political party, unlike similar clubs run by candidates and their supporters.

Josh Frydenberg's Kooyong 200 Club raised $464,000 in 2015-16, its disclosure as an associated entity on the AEC website shows. Kelly O'Dwyer's Higgins 200 Club raised $263,000.

A Liberal insider estimated the Deakin Club raised a "six-figure sum" annually.

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, the member for Deakin, denied the club was an associated entity, and said funds raised by the club were managed by the Victorian division of the Liberal Party.

"It's a club/brand for Deakin ... to fundraise on behalf of the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party," said Mr Sukkar's spokesperson Joshua Bonney, a former Glen Eira council candidate and evangelical churchgoer who is organising a cocktail event for the club in April.

"All funds are therefore reported in the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party's return in the usual way," Mr Bonney said.

Under Australian electoral law, only donations over $13,200 need to be disclosed. The Liberal Party disclosure does not identify any donations made to the Deakin fundraising body, nor the amount the club donates to the party itself. It does identify donations made by the Higgins and Kooyong clubs.

Mr Sukkar said the Victorian Liberal party had ruled out the establishment of new stand-alone fundraising entities in the wake of a row over the party's control of funds raised by the Higgins 200 Club in 2010. A similar row between the party and Liberal investment vehicle the Cormack Foundation is currently ongoing.

However political donations expert Joo-Cheong Tham said the club's activities clearly fell within the definition of an "associated entity" under the Commonwealth Electoral Act.

"It's not up to the Victorian Liberal Party to decide which organisations are associated entities and which are not," said the associate professor of the University of Melbourne Law School. "That is determined by the application of the law and the objective facts about the activities and the objectives of those organisations."

Meanwhile the rise of candidate-linked fundraising entities such as the Deakin Club showed the creeping Americanisation of our political finance system, said law expert Graeme Orr, where individuals increased their internal party power and leverage through their fund-raising prowess.

"[What we are seeing is] the American phenomenon, of well-connected candidates in wealthy districts building treasure chests to increase their factional or ideological influence in the party, versus the Australian tradition of strong, centrally controlled parties," said Professor Orr, from the University of Queensland.

Simon Frost, state director of the Liberal Party, said the Victorian division "and its associated entities and electorate conferences conduct robust auditing and reporting of contributions, in accordance with relevant laws."

Senator Ryan denied any involvement with the management of the Deakin 200 club, through a spokesperson, and directed operational queries to "the club's executive," and disclosure queries to the Liberal Party and the AEC.

An AEC spokesperson said as the status of various associations or groups arises from time to time, the commission "addresses issues directly with the entity concerned."

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The right-wing Liberal club hiding donors and building conservative clout - The Age