War chest v's Poor Chest

There was an article published in the Herald today describing the political ‘war chest of funds’ for the local candidates. Jeff Hunter, the Labor incumbent was doubling his campaign expenditure to about $40,000, Greg Piper, high profile independent candidate and currently Mayor of Lake Macquarie was hoping to raise $40,000- $50,000 for his campaign.

If the major parties and independents have a war chest the Greens campaign would have to be described as a poor chest. The Lake Macquarie campaign budget at a whopping $5000 is small pickings compared to the other candidates in the up coming election. In fact the Newcastle Greens are running candidates in six electorates on less than Jeff Hunter’s budget of $40,000.

Why is this so? The Greens do not accept donations from developers, it is seen to compromise the process of democracy. There was also a statement in the Herald article that the Johnson Property group have ‘occasionally’ donated to the Greens, this is untrue. An attempt to donate online, on Monday before the article was published was reversed as soon as it became apparent who the source of the donation was. Electoral records show that the Johnson Property Group donated $74,250 to Sydney Labor in 2005/05 and $39,500 to the Liberals in 2005/06.

Research by the Greens on developer donations shows the NSW Labor Party has raised $9.88 million from the property sector since 1998-99, and the NSW Liberals and Nationals received $7.01 million. Donations by developers can be searched at The Greens Democracy4Sale website which is based on official electoral funding returns.

So one question that needs to be asked is who is funding the campaigns of the independents? As they say whoever pays the piper gets their tune played.