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The price of power: Labor spent $10 million to secure a third term

With a 26-day campaign, across 93 seats, Labor was willing to spend up to win four more years in power at last year’s state election.

Feb 12, 2021, updated Feb 12, 2021
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her father Henry Palaszczuk enjoy a Democracy Sausage after she cast her vote in the state election, at the Inala State School. (AAP Image/Dan Peled, Pool)

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her father Henry Palaszczuk enjoy a Democracy Sausage after she cast her vote in the state election, at the Inala State School. (AAP Image/Dan Peled, Pool)

As reported by InQueensland, the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party recently submitted its expenditure return for the October 31 election. It revealed the party HQ spent $7,817,350.78 on the campaign, keeping it under the caps introduced by the Palaszczuk government.

However, scores of returns for individual Labor candidates have since trickled in, revealing around $1 million in additional spending via local campaigns. Add to that the “third party” campaigns, for example those run by sympathetic unions, and Labor’s re-election is likely to have cost $10 million.

However, not all Labor’s investment – paid for through donations, membership fees and other income – provided a return: the most expensive local campaign was for fallen Labor heavyweight Jackie Trad, who lost her seat of South Brisbane to the Greens.

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That $55,912.54 outlay on a single seat was much more than the Liberal National Party has declared on any of its local campaigns. To date, its biggest expense was $32,690.96 to see Colin Boyce hold his seat of Callide.

The LNP has yet to disclose how much its party HQ spent on the campaign, but had complained of being short-changed by a ban on developer donations. The federal National Party transferred $52,000 to the LNP three weeks after the election.

From next year, the Palaszczuk government plans to impose a cap on donations and more taxpayer funding for campaigns to improve the integrity of the process.

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