Federal MP Zali Steggall failed to disclose a six-figure political donation from the family trust of a multimillionaire coal investor, an audit of her campaign financing has found
and could face up to a decade in jail if found guilty. He has pleaded not guilty. The 80-year-old is a former investor and director of Cascade Coal and Felix Resources, which was sold to China’s Yanzhou Coal for $3.5 billion in 2009.
The practice of donation splitting, when payments are divided into smaller amounts so that large payments can be concealed under the threshold, has been widely condemned by transparency advocates and donation reform campaigns such as GetUp, a strong supporter of Ms Steggall.
Ms Steggall has been among the loudest voices in Federal Parliament calling for political donation reform, declaring in December last year that “for too long, money has been hidden from view and public scrutiny. Our democracy has been for sale”. On announcing her candidacy in 2019, she said Australia “can’t let coal companies and lobbyists buy their way into our government”.
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