Democracy for Sale

ABC, 25 January 2012

The Greens have accused the New South Wales Government of being swayed to ban regular unleaded petrol by political donations from ethanol company Manildra.

From July all petrol sold in NSW must contain ethanol, except for the more expensive premium unleaded fuels.

Ethanol, which is produced from agricultural crops, cannot be used in many cars and critics say the policy will cost motorists thousands of dollars.

Figures from the Election Funding Authority show Manildra donated nearly $200,000 to the Liberal, National and Labor parties from the beginning of 2010 up to the state election in March last year.

Leaked documents also emerged this week showing the State Government has ignored advice from the Crown Solicitor and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission the unleaded petrol ban.

Josephine Tovey and Michelle Harris, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 January 2012

The Department of Planning is investigating whether a coalmining company has breached the state’s planning laws by not declaring political donations from its chairman, the billionaire mining magnate Nathan Tinkler.

Aston Coal 2, a subsidiary of Aston Resources, lodged a development application for the Maules Creek Coal Project, a new coalmine in north-west NSW, under the old Part 3A ‘‘ state significant’ ’ planning laws in August 2010.

Mr Tinkler, who is the nonexecutive chairman and founder of Aston Resources, made two substantial donations to the Nationals last year, one of $5000 to the party’s state campaign and another $45,000 to its federal campaign on March 31.

Organisations are required to declare reportable political donations – those over $1000 – made by companies or their directors, even if the donation was made after the DA was lodged. A spokeswoman for the department confirmed no declaration had been received.

"The department is investigating the matter,’’ the spokeswoman said.

"If the company is found to have breached its obligations under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, the department will decide what further action to take.’’

Mr Tinkler founded Aston Resources in 2008 and was appointed non-executive chairman on November 17, 2011.

Garry Wayling, the acting chief financial officer of Aston Resources, said the company would clarify whether it needed to declare Mr Tinkler’s political donations in light of his appointment as chairman, and would ‘‘ do everything that’s appropriate’’.

The Planning Minister, Brad Hazzard , said the DA would be determined "transparently and at armslength by the independent Planning Assessment Commission’’ .

The Election Funding Authority has previously indicated it will investigate whether the two donations are also a breach of NSW laws which ban donations from property developers.

Mr Tinkler is a non-executive director of the property developer Buildev Group.

A spokesman for Mr Tinkler has said, in relation to that matter, the donation to the state branch was made in good faith and they did not realise it may have constituted a breach, while they believed the federal donation was not in breach of state laws.

The Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham said he hoped the DA for the mine, which was still being assessed, would be refused.

"The expansion of coalmining in the Leard Forest area and nearby farms is unnecessary and should be rejected,’’ he said.

Editorial The Japan Times  13 December 2011

Power industry appears to attempt to buy influence in Japan through political donations and attendance at fundraisers.

Reports on political donations for 2010 made public Nov. 30 by the Japanese internal affairs ministry show that both management and labor unions of the power industry provided a large amount of money to both the Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Democratic Party. It is logical to suspect that the power companies are trying to buy influence from the parties to protect their regional monopoly and promote nuclear power generation.

Mother Jones, December 2011

If Citizens United was the Big Bang of a new era of money in politics, here's the parallel universe it formed: rapidly expanding super-PACs and nebulous 501(c) groups exerting their gravitational pull on federal elections. A group's size in the chart below is based upon all known fundraising or spending since 2010…so keep an eye out for dark matter. Come back for regular updates.

Click here to view.