James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor loves to lecture this parliament about transparency and integrity, but, when you follow the money, what you find is scale, secrecy and spin. I reviewed the latest financial disclosures lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission, and the numbers are staggering. Last financial year the Australian Labor Party self-spent around $150 million, but that is just the storefront. Behind it sits a vast industrial network of 89 associated entities, unions, trusts and subsidiaries, altogether spending an extraordinary $672 million in the same year. Taken together, that's more than $800 million flowing through Labor's political ecosystem in a single financial year. This dwarfs the spending of every other political party in this country combined. Australians are entitled to ask: what exactly is this money funding? Even the returns of organisations entirely devoted to political campaigning, like Climate 200 and GetUp!, are at best dubious. Of the more than $25 million expended by climate 200 in 2024-25, less than $5 million has been classified as electoral expenditure. Are we really expected to believe that Climate 200 spent $20 million on non-electoral experiences? Whether it's Labor or the Teals, millions of dollars are being spent to influence elections, and the public remains in the dark. I can't for the life of me see how the Labor Party and its union affiliates spending some $800 million—close to $1 billion—in a single year has benefited our nation in any way. When Australians see what has occurred with the corrupt CFMEU in Victoria, they are right to question how union money is being used. What are you hiding, Mr Albanese?