VOTERS deserve to know how much The Nationals spent on the 2019 federal election campaign in the Mallee electorate, one of the losing independent candidates says.
Ray Kingston said the lack of transparency around donations or gifts and campaign expenditure for major party candidates was frustrating.
“The parties in general should be obliged to break down their spend per seat,” he said.
“By pooling all of their reporting back into a great, big national system, it’s impossible to see how it all works.
“Whereas for an independent like myself it’s completely transparent, and I think that’s great.”
Mr Kingston said The Nationals’ spending was “dramatically ramped up” during this campaign and voters deserved to know to what extent.
“I suspect that they spent a magnitude of money more than what they would have been capable of raising from your average National Party supporter in this electorate,” he said.
“And I think it’s worth asking the question — if outside interests are putting money into this electorate, what’s in it for them, why do they do that?
“I think they are fair questions to ask in a democracy.”
Candidate disclosures were released by the Australian Electoral Commission on Monday, showing the amounts received in donations or gifts and the total electoral expenditure for election campaigns.
However, major party candidates were not required to release that information.
Parties only have to release an overall spend that is not broken down to electorates.
Dr Webster declared $3500 in donations or gifts and expenditure of $6050.
Only two other winning Nationals candidates declared expenditure — Northern Territory senator Samantha McMahon ($5000) and Veterans and Defence Personnel Minister Darren Chester ($288).
None of the other 20 winning Nationals candidates declared any gifts or donations.
The figures show independent Jason Modica received just over $51,000 in gifts or donations and had an expenditure of $52,352.
Mr Modica had 39 donors, one of which he confirmed was a $25,000 donation from a family member.
“I had a very large donation from family which I was over the moon about,” he said.
“I received quite a few in that $75 to $100 bracket from local businesses … old friends … there were people from different suites and backgrounds who supported me through the federal election and I’m very grateful for them and my volunteers.”
Independent candidate Cecilia Moar incurred the highest reported expenditure during her campaign, spending $56,521 while Mr Kingston incurred $48,227 in costs during his campaign.
Mr Kingston said he estimated The Nationals could have spent up to $800,000 on the Mallee election campaign.
“It’s a back-of-an-envelope figure but it’s believable,” he said.
“They probably spent $100,000 on mailouts alone.
“And then you add substantial online presences, huge number of wrap-around (advertisements) across five or six papers, an enormous amount of printing.
“I won’t put my hand on my heart to that figure because I honestly don’t know but it’s definitely a feasible figure.
“Until I hear something else from The Nationals, what have I got except to make a guess?”
Mr Modica said there could be an “interesting discussion that could be had about large donations”.
“Democracy is a wonderful thing … but can it be manipulated too much by money and the fact we have the register does suggest there is some transparency which is great,” he said.
“We went through the process of doing what every candidate has to do after the election and itemised all our ongoing costs.
“There was a lot of money spent on travel…. a lot of money spent on advertising and once again that’s just the process of the democracy we’re in.”
