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Right-wing lobby group Advance collected $655,000 from members of secretive Christian sect the Exclusive Brethren and almost $900,000 from mining magnate Gina Rinehart in the last election year, while Clive Palmer was Australia’s biggest political donor for pouring $53 million into his unsuccessful Trumpet of Patriots campaign.
Industry lobby group Coal Australia donated more than $5 million to third-party campaigns that attacked the teals, Greens and Labor under the guise of grassroots groups. At the same time, a handful of tech and investor billionaires gave more than $1 million each to Climate 200, which itself donated to anti-Coalition outfits while supporting the community independent movement.
The latest data release from the Australian Electoral Commission shows several of Australia’s biggest political donors last financial year shunned the major parties and instead poured their millions into minor parties, independents and third-party campaign groups – a sign of the evolving ways people are seeking to influence elections.
Palmer’s company, Mineralogy, was the top political donor in 2024-25, its $53 million in donations to the Trumpet of Patriots being larger than the donations banked by either of the major political parties. The Liberals and Nationals raised $35 million in combined political donations, while Labor raked in just under $30 million.
However, the major parties’ total war chests were ultimately worth more – the Coalition collected $221 million altogether, and Labor $160 million, when other payments such as fundraising events, subscriptions and taxpayer entitlements were counted. These are listed as “other receipts” by the AEC.
While Palmer’s was the largest donation of the election year, it was less than half the $117 million that the billionaire spent in 2022-23. At the 2022 election, Palmer’s United Australia Party secured one Senate seat. At the most recent election, his renamed party claimed none.
The second-biggest political donor last financial year was industry lobby group Coal Australia, which made almost $5.4 million in political donations. But only a sliver of that – about $240,000 – went to the major political parties, mostly the Liberals and Nationals.
The vast majority of Coal Australia’s political donations ($5.15 million) went to other campaign groups.
This included $2.7 million to group Australians for Prosperity, $1.3 million to an outfit called Jobs for Mining Communities and $1.1 million to an entity called Energy for Australians Incorporated, which has a Facebook page with 315 followers and no active website.
Australians for Prosperity – which is authorised by former Liberal MP Jason Falinski – campaigned against Labor and teal candidates during the election. It claims to be a grassroots group that “unites everyday Australians to defend aspiration, hard work, opportunity and freedom”.
However, the AEC data reveals almost all its funding came from the coal lobby. Australians for Prosperity had just one other recorded donation – $30,000 from Silver River Investment Holdings.
Coal Australia wasn’t the only group propping up third-party brands. The Climate 200 movement, which fundraises for community independent candidates, gave more than $1.6 million to Hothouse Magazine, a publication that describes itself as an environmental and climate news source.
The magazine ran attack ads against Peter Dutton and Liberal candidates during the 2025 campaign, becoming one of the top 10 spenders on Facebook and Instagram during the election, and targeted its advertising spending in contested teal seats, according to the ABC.
Climate 200 also gave $798,395 to It’s Not A Race Ltd, a climate-focused social media campaign started by comedian Dan Ilic.
Third-party groups on the rise, led by Advance
Professor Andrew Hughes, a political marketing expert at the Australian National University, said he expected third-party campaign groups to keep proliferating, especially as new laws placed limits on how much political parties could spend on elections.
Labor had long used the unions to spread its message, Hughes said, and left-wing campaign group GetUp! was Australia’s first major example of a third party that successfully used this strategy online. But he said conservative outfits, such as Advance, had since become more effective as they promoted right-wing issues by “pushing the boundaries where mainstream parties can’t go”.
Rinehart was the biggest donor to Advance in the last financial year, giving $895,000 to the conservative lobby group through her company, Hancock Prospecting. Australia’s richest woman gave far less to the major parties – Hancock donated $99,000 to the Liberal Party’s Western Australian division, and $105,000 to the Victorian branch in the 2024-25 financial year.
Other top donors to Advance included Willimbury Pty Ltd ($300,000), SP Newcastle Pty Limited ($250,000), businessman Rod Tunley ($246,500), David Steele ($226,500) and stockbroker Angus Aitken ($200,000).
Tunley and Steele are both listed as trustees in charities linked to the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, a religious sect previously known as the Exclusive Brethren, whose members do not vote but turned out in huge numbers in marginal electorates to campaign for Peter Dutton last May.
Other Advance donors linked to brethren charities included Andrew Gillies ($145,000), Gavin Grace ($18,500) and Peter Grace ($18,500).
Hughes said third-party campaign groups were able to spread negative messages without tarring the brand of major parties, and afforded politicians deniability over more controversial content.
“The strategy is to protect the brand name and leader’s name from any damage from advertising campaigns that focus on contentious issues,” he said. “A third-party campaigner can go harder, be more direct and more blunt, particularly on social media, where they can target their audience.”
Biggest donors to the major parties
Donors to the major parties last year included unions, resources companies and some of Australia’s wealthiest individuals. Unions that gave large sums to Labor included the Mining and Energy Union ($3 million), United Workers Union ($1 million), the Plumbers’ union ($500,000) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union ($373,881).
Pratt Holdings, chaired by Australia’s richest man Anthony Pratt, gave $2 million to Labor and $1 million to the Liberal Party – making it the fourth-largest donor – while trucking magnate Lindsay Fox’s Fox Group gave $500,000 to both Labor and the Liberals.
The biggest single donor to the Liberals was South Australian philanthropist Pamela Wall, who gave $5.26 million to the state division, followed by Oryxium Investments, a Lowy family investment vehicle, which gave $1.8 million.
Food delivery company DoorDash gave the Liberals $785,000, Meriton Property Services donated $500,000, and Justin Hemmes – who hosted a Liberal Party fundraiser for Peter Dutton in Sydney while Dutton’s hometown was flooded – gave $250,000 through Hemmes Trading.
The largest donation to the Nationals, aside from sizeable donations from the Queensland Liberal National Party, was $50,000 from the Minerals Council of Australia and $44,000 from Coal Australia.
Mathematician and high-end gambler Duncan Turpie was once again near the top of the Greens’ donations list, with $500,000 total contributions.
The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing union gave the Greens $600,000, as well as $814,000 to Labor and $150,000 to the Legalise Cannabis party. Tech entrepreneur turned climate campaigner Norman Pater and former ACT politician Caroline Le Couteur each gave the Greens $300,000.
Pater was also one of Climate 200’s biggest donors, alongside investor Rob Keldoulis, venture capital investor James Taylor, Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar and chief executive Michael Cannon-Brookes. Their contributions of $1 million or more each were published last October.
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Natassia Chrysanthos is Federal Political Correspondent. She has previously reported on immigration, health, social issues and the NDIS from Parliament House in Canberra.Connect via X or email.
James Massola is chief political commentator. He was previously national affairs editor and South-East Asia correspondent. He has won Quill and Kennedy awards and been a Walkley finalist. Connect securely on Signal @jamesmassola.01Connect via X or email.
Brittany Busch is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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