Companies linked to property developers have given more than $500,000 to Queensland’s large political parties before the state election, as experts warn the laws banning developer donations are “failing”.
A Guardian Australia investigation into political donations has found that Queensland’s 2018 laws, designating property developers as “restricted donors”, has not stopped money flowing from the sector to help bankroll the election campaign of both main parties.
Donations made since January 2023 include payments from entities that do not meet the state’s “vague and unclear” definition of a prohibited donor, but which ultimately profit from property development by financing, planning, building or selling projects.
In other instances, companies established for nondevelopment purposes – but controlled by individuals with property development interests – have donated large sums of money.
In most cases, these donations appear to have been made lawfully and Guardian Australia is not suggesting rules have been broken. But experts have questioned the effectiveness of the ban, saying the “system is failing” to keep development cash out of politics.
One of the Liberal National party’s largest recent donors is the accounting and financial services company, HMW Advisory.
Each of the company’s three directors – James Whitelaw, Angelo Catalano and Grant Williams – would arguably meet the legal definition of a property developer and be banned from making individual donations themselves. But as an entity, HMW Advisory and an associated company have made almost $130,000 in contributions to the LNP since June 2023.
Company documents show Whitelaw is a director of Metroplex, a masterplanned industrial and commercial development at Wacol, in Brisbane’s south-west. He is also a director of Brescia Investments, a holding company of Metroplex owner and prominent Brisbane developer Silvio Pradella.
Catalano is also on the board of several development companies. He is a director and shareholder in two entities – Opalyn Developments and Opalyn Indooroopilly – that are part of the luxury apartment developer Opalyn Property Group.
Williams is a director of several entities involved in property development, including a company that built disability housing in Cairns.
Both Whitelaw and Williams are directors of Adapt Housing, a company whose website says it is “building a wide range of specialist disability homes”. Catalano is a former director.
HMW Advisory’s directors were contacted for comment.
Most donations flow to LNP
The Electoral Commission Queensland (ECQ) defines a developer as an individual or entity that “regularly” makes development applications.
Most of the donations identified by Guardian Australia as having been made by entities with links to property development were made to the LNP, which polls suggest is likely to win the state election on 26 October.
In some cases, entities that were previously considered banned – or believed themselves to meet the definition – recently have made donations.
This includes Gary Spence, the former president of the LNP, who quit the role in 2018 after advice he may be a prohibited donor.
Spence said in 2018 that he was “at risk of being prosecuted and going to jail” if he was involved in the party’s fundraising, due in part to his work at a company that provided town planning and other services for property development. He and the LNP unsuccessfully challenged the ban in the high court.
Spence made two donations, totalling $7,300, earlier this year.
He says he no longer has any personal development interests, and that the ECQ has clarified that “it did not intend interpreting the legislation in a way that captured consultants”.
The LNP’s receipts also show it took $5,000 from Zashvin, a company that had previously been deemed a “prohibited donor”. The company has been contacted for comment.
Both parties have received donations from entities that profit from development, but don’t lodge development applications and are outside the definition of a prohibited donor.
These include Saunders Havill Group, a consultancy, which promotes its work by saying “Queensland’s most successful land development … projects reflect Saunders Havill Group know how”. It has donated $9,040 to the LNP since the start of 2023. Its chief executive, Alasdair Begley, said the company had been assessed by the ECQ as a nonprohibited donor.
Other donations have been made by construction and real estate companies that market property developments.
Money has flowed from companies where key personnel were involved in the property development sector.
Labor received donations worth $5,300 in 2024 from the Leadership Company, an entity run by Jim Varghese, the current chair and former CEO of the Springfield Land Corporation. Varghese said the Leadership Company had four times sought and received a determination from the ECQ that it was a “non prohibited donor”.
“TLC supports robust election donation laws and we will continue to demonstrate our company meets the high standard required by the ECQ as a non-prohibited donor,” he said.
Labor also banked $34,000 from Boran Pty Ltd, a company with investment and real estate interests. Boran is run by Neil Rae, whose professional profile says he has “a keen eye for property development”. Comment has been sought from Rae.
The LNP has received $42,000 from investment company Australian Secure Capital Fund. The fund’s executive director, Filippo Sciacca, is listed by the corporate regulator as a director of various development companies. Sciacca said ASCF was “in full compliance with the relevant legislation and should the laws be changed will ensure it continues to comply”.
An LNP spokesperson said the party “works cooperatively with the Australian Electoral Commission and the Electoral Commission of Queensland to ensure compliance with commonwealth and state electoral law”.
Labor requires its donors to certify they are not property developers. The party’s state secretary, Kate Flanders, said the party also reviewed the register of “non-prohibited donors” and undertook “internal checks including reviewing donor information through ASIC, ATO and ABN searches”.
Flanders said none of the Labor donors identified by Guardian Australia were property developers.
‘The system is failing’
When the state parliament passed legislation banning property developers from making donations in 2018, a committee scrutinising the bill heard multiple concerns that the definition was “too narrow” and not precisely defined. Others argued the wording was too broad.
Anthony Whealy KC, the chair of the Centre for Public Integrity, said the high court had “endorsed the notion that a particular class of people like property developers should be banned from making donations”.
“It is very clear from the situation that you have outlined that the definition of ‘property developer’ in Queensland is inadequate and requires serious amendment,” Whealy said.
“If the idea is to keep the property development industry out of making donations because of the influence they can wield on governments, then the system is failing.”
AJ Brown, a professor of public policy at Griffith University and the chair of Transparency International Australia, said bans on donations from a particular sector – such as property developers – may be well intentioned, but risk being ineffective or counter-productive.
“You’ve got to draw boundaries somewhere and boundaries are also liable to people finding and exploiting loopholes,” he said.
Graeme Orr, a University of Queensland expert on electoral law, says part of the problem stems from the notion that the law seeks to ban donations from a particular source.
“Wherever we draw such lines, there is potential for going too far versus being under-inclusive. Given these laws restrict a political freedom, it’s constitutionally safer to be under-inclusive,” Orr says.
“[It would be] simpler … to just cap all donations, and focus on enforcing that cap.”
