The Queensland Liberal National party alone accepted $622,500 in donations from Mr Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy company during the lead up period.
Following the 2007 federal election, in the 2008/09 financial year, the Coalition took $824,405 from resource companies compared to Labor’s $194,500.
The fact is, over the past decade, the Coalition has received more than double the donations from the resources industry than Labor.
For the decade from 1998 to 2008 the Federal Coalition received $1.8 million from the resources industry. Federal Labor received just over $800,000.
Mr Hockey’s casual relationship with facts reveals a sloppiness that reflects poorly on the shadow treasurer.
It is widely known that, as well as making donations, resource companies made generous payments to the Howard government to sit on energy and mining advisory boards.
Has the Liberal Caucus now formally adopted Tony Abbott’s ‘the truth is on paper, say whatever the hell you want’ mantra?
If the Coalition wants to hold the hand of the mining industry and start spinning heat on the Rudd government over the Resources Super Profits Tax, Mr Hockey should do a bit more research into the reality of political donations.
Over the past decade, comparison of overall political donations shows the Coalition leading Labor. The Liberals and Nationals over the last decade have received $77.9 million while Labor has pocketed $68.7 million.
In the Lateline interview Mr Hockey expressed ‘complete outrage’ over the suggestion that we politicians are ‘political representatives for hire’.
If Mr Hockey had the conviction to turn that public blustering into reality, he would be advocating for electoral funding reform.
Since Mr Abbott became opposition leader, the Liberals have clearly backed off from working with the Greens to end the distasteful political donations regime.
Lee Rhiannon is a NSW Greens MP and spokesperson on science and health.