Monthly Archives: March 2017

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

Bishop Carroll led throughout on their way to a state clinching win at the Big House in Liberal Friday night. Carroll, who went 20-5 and took third at state last year beat LHS 40-30. The Lady Redskins had a rough night offensively struggling against Carrolls press in the first half. Carroll also gained a lot of offensive rebounds in the first half.

Carroll led 10-6 after a quarter and 24-13 at the half. Liberals push came in the third quarter when LHS cut the Carroll lead to 28-23 with 1:38 to go in the third. The Lady Eagles led by as many as 13 (36-23) on the way to the win. LHS was 4-4 at the foul line while Carroll was 8-22. BCHS made 7-16 threes and LHS was 4-15.

Bishop Carroll held Jada Mickens to two points in her final game. Reyna Gonzalez led LHS with eight. LHS finished 17-5 while Bishop Carroll is 18-4 and going to state.

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Bishop Carroll Holds Down Liberal - KSCB News.net

In a truly open contest, writes Don Macpherson, Yolande James would be at a disadvantage against Alan DeSousa. Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette

Nobody comes out ofthis weeks DeSousa affair looking good.

Start with Alan DeSousa himself, who sayshes a victim of character assassination in the federal Liberal partys mysterious refusal to allow him to seek its nomination for the April 3 by-election in the Montreal riding of St-Laurent.

Then theres Yolande James, the star candidate who has been made to look as though the party Establishment, which is reported to favour her for the nomination, doesnt believe she could beat DeSousa in a fair fight.

And last but not least theres Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose vauntednew style of politics has again been exposed as merely cosmetic.

In addition to participating in pay-for-access fundraising events, Trudeau has at least tolerated the repeated apparent rigging of theopen nominations of his partys candidates that he promised.

When he ran for the Liberal leadership in 2013, Trudeau promised that all the partys candidates would be chosen by votes of their constituents. Since he became leader, however, there have been several instances when would-be candidates complained that the party meddled in the nominating process before the vote.

For example, in the Toronto-area riding of Markham Thornhill, where another by-election will be held April 3, the party hastily and retroactively cut off registration for the vote after a member of Trudeaus staff became the first potential candidate to enter. This stopped other would-be candidates from registering their supporters.

In St-Laurent, the partys national candidate-vetting committee informed DeSousa this week that his name would not be on the ballot, for reasons that remain unexplained.

DeSousa has been borough mayor inSt-Laurent since 2001, and its public knowledge that in 2013, the boroughs offices were raided by UPAC, the provincial anti-corruption squad.

Four years later, however, DeSousa has not been charged with anything. And he told me he received encouragement to seek the nomination at all levels of the Liberal party, from the riding executive up to the prime ministers office.

That, however, was before James confirmed her decision to run.

DeSousa wasnt scared off by the prospect of having to face the former Quebec Liberal minister, whose potential candidacy had already been floated before DeSousa announced his.

James is an unproven campaigner, even though she was elected to the National Assembly four times. She was never seriously tested, since she ran in a safe Liberal riding, and her majorities were smaller than those of the previous Liberal MNA.

Still, James would be a lock to win the by-election in St-Laurent, which is such a safe ridingfor the Liberals that the real election thereis the one for theirnomination.

In a truly open contest, however, James wouldbe at a disadvantage against DeSousa.

Hes won several contested elections in his 31 years in localpolitics. And that suggests he could count on an established network in the riding to sign up supporters and get them to a nominating meeting.

James is from outside St-Laurent. And she brings some heavy political baggage with her.

In provincial politics, James was best known for campaigningagainst the niqab. As minister of immigration and cultural communities in the former Charest government,she was a leading supporter of proposedlegislation that would have denied public services to women wearing suchveils. And she had an immigrant woman expelled from a French course for refusingto remove her niqab.

In the three years since James left provincial politics, shesays her thinking has evolved. Coincidentally, St-Laurent was 17-per-cent Muslim at the 2011 census.

If James is such a weak candidate that she needs to be carried by the party to a nomination tainted by a backroom fix, then it would be better if Trudeau did what old-style leadershave always done. That is, he should name the candidate himself.

It would be no less democratic. Andit would be cleaner, and more honest.

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Don Macpherson: The messy Liberal nomination fight in St-Laurent - Montreal Gazette

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy's bid to tackle his party's gender gap has been a given a much-needed boost, with a woman finally preselected into a safe Liberal seat ahead of next year's state election.

After Liberal preselections in Brighton, Nepean, Narracan and Burwood were all won by men in recent months, 37-year-old Goodyear procurement manager Bridget Vallence bucked the trend when she was chosen on Saturday as the new candidate to replace retiring MP Christine Fyffe in the outer eastern seat of Evelyn.

The well-regarded Liberal nudged out a competitive field including Ms Fyffe's son, Scott before eventually beating key rival Grant Hutchinson (who is aligned with controversial Liberal numbers man Marcus Baastian) in the final round, 39 votes to 31.

"This sends the right message to the party," one senior parliamentarian told The Sunday Age. "Yes, we need more women, but we also need quality women. This is a great result."

Ms Vallence's victory is viewed as an important win for Mr Guy, who warned Liberals last year it was time to "get serious" about narrowing the gender gap and announced an ambitious goal to lift his party's female representation in parliament by a further 10 per cent at every election.

However in the four consecutive preselections that have taken place since, the male candidate has prevailed: Brighton was won by former Napthine government staffer James Newbury; Nepean was won by Russell Joseph, the 56-year-old electorate officer to retiring MP Martin Dixon; Narracan was won by 65-year-old incumbent MP Gary Blackwood; and Burwood was won by sitting MP Graham Watt.

After the convention, Mr Guy said: "Bridget will be a tremendous candidate for the Liberal Party in Evelyn. I'm proud to see the Liberal Party select someone of such calibre and promise as our Evelyn candidate."

The under-representation of women in parliament has long been a problem in Australia, which has low levels of female participation compared with other developed democracies.

In a bid to tackle the issue, the University of Melbourne recently developed a new course, Pathways To Politics, to encourage more women to get involved. Following the success of a pilot last year, the program was launched formally last Tuesday.

Under the program, which is modelled on a similar Harvard initiative, participants are given 12 weeks of intensive training on everything from negotiating the party machine, to speech writing, to knowing when to run. Past guest speakers have included Tony Abbott's former chief of staff Peta Credlin and former governor-general Quentin Bryce, while Ms Vallence is one of its first graduates.

Dr Andrea Carson, the academic coordinator of the program, said the aim was to lift female representation across all levels of politics: local government, state parliament, and federal parliament.

"It's about women thinking that politics is not outside their reach," she said. "It also offers very practical skills about how to negotiate the boys club and let's face it, that boys club does exist, particularly with parties that don't have quotas or targets."

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Liberal preselection for Evelyn: Bridget Vallence boosts Guy's gender targets - The Age