Essential Report
Political donations
Q. Would you support or oppose introducing the following requirement concerning political donation?
Total support | Total oppose | Strongly support | Support | Oppose | Strongly oppose | Don’t know | Total support (Jun 2017) | Total oppose (Jun 2017) | ||
Political donations to be reported immediately by political parties, compared to annual reports at the moment | 84% | 6% | 46% | 38% | 5% | 1% | 11% | 78% | 5% | |
All politicians to publicly disclose meetings with representatives of companies, donors or unions | 82% | 5% | 44% | 38% | 4% | 1% | 12% | 79% | 6% | |
A ban on foreign donations | 67% | 16% | 42% | 25% | 12% | 4% | 16% | 64% | 15% | |
A cap on donations of $5000 | 59% | 20% | 27% | 32% | 16% | 4% | 22% | 61% | 15% | |
A ban on political donations by companies and unions | 58% | 22% | 27% | 31% | 18% | 4% | 21% | 60% | 16% | |
All donations banned and all political party spending to be taxpayer funded | 30% | 50% | 13% | 17% | 23% | 27% | 21% | 30% | 46% |
Support by party preference | Total support | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | |
Political donations to be reported immediately by political parties, compared to annual reports at the moment | 84% | 87% | 86% | 89% | 89% | |
All politicians to publicly disclose meetings with representatives of companies, donors or unions | 82% | 83% | 89% | 83% | 86% | |
A ban on foreign donations | 67% | 66% | 74% | 68% | 75% | |
A cap on donations of $5000 | 59% | 63% | 60% | 58% | 65% | |
A ban on political donations by companies and unions | 58% | 53% | 63% | 64% | 65% | |
All donations banned and all political party spending to be taxpayer funded | 30% | 36% | 29% | 30% | 25% |
There was majority support for all listed reforms except taxpayer funding for political parties (30% support/50% oppose).
There was particularly strong support for immediate reporting of donations (84%, up 6% from June) and public disclosure of meetings (82%, up 3%).
There were few major differences by party preference.

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