The ethics or otherwise of Liberal Party funding

The Australian, 18 December 2018:

Image: Twitter

Promotional material for the expo also touted stalls for government agencies, including Centrelink and the Australian Electoral Commission, although there is no evidence they were charged.

The expo was not billed as a political fundraiser.

Mr Robert yesterday conceded he had instructed exhibitors to pay their fees into the LNP campaign account, which were declared as donations.

“Under electoral guidelines, we couldn’t set up a different account for the event so the money had to be paid into the LNP campaign account, and yes, they were declared as donations,’’ he said.

Federal Assistant Treasurer and Liberal MP for Fadden Stuart Robert insists that the entire expo attended by an est. 10,000 people and all its events ran at a loss, therefore none of the $300,000 in donations is capable of being used in an election campaign.

Given Robert's party fund raising history I suspect that assertion requires a fact check.

He has not been alone in running senior's expos.

Liberal MP for Bonner Ron Vasta also held a senior's expo in November 2018, an event which had fifty stall holders. One has to wonder if they paid a fee for their expo sites which also went into Liberal Party coffers.

Indeed, these expos were quite popular with Liberal MPs. Minister for Home Affairs and Liberal MP for Dickson Peter Dutton held one on 30-31 August this year. As did Liberal MP for Forde Bert Van Manen and Liberal MP for Moncrieff Steve Ciobo in their electorates in September 2017.