These pages start from the AEC's own published data and make it usable. Nothing here is
new money or new disclosure: it is the same returns, joined up and explained.
What the AEC publishes
The AEC's Donations Made file is one long list of 66,157 donations, one row per donation, each
with a financial year, a date, the donor's name, the recipient's name and a value. Every name is as typed by whoever
lodged the return: the 1,994 recipient names in the file include many spellings of the same party
branch ("Liberal Party of Australia, NSW Division", "... NSW Division - NSW", "LIB-NSW"). There is no grouping of a
party's branches, no link from a donation to the bodies that make up a party, and no way to see a party's
total.
What these pages add
- One name per recipient. 1,994 recipient spellings are merged into
768 bodies, and 6,461 donor spellings into 6,400 donors. Without this, a
party's total is scattered over dozens of rows. National bodies are never merged into state branches, and
a name is merged only when it clearly refers to the same body.
- Party totals. Each recipient is tied to a party so that a party and all its branches can be
added up. The party comes from the AEC's own Party Group where it has one (49 bodies); otherwise from the
body's name (a party branch, a recognised short form such as LIB-NSW, or a Liberal- or ALP-affiliated fundraising
club) (448 bodies). Each recipient table shows which basis was used. 271 small recipients
($24,273,745) belong to no party.
- Donors labelled. Each donor is marked as an individual, an organisation (company, union,
association), a bank or financial body, a government body, or a party body.
- Internal transfers separated. Where one body of a party gives to another body of the same
party, it is counted but shown separately ($101,194 in this file).
- Charts and key facts for every recipient: who gave, how it flows, and the pattern by financial year.
What it cannot tell you
- These are donations reported as made by donors. They are not the same total as the receipts that
parties report, so the figures will not match the AEC's receipts tables.
- Matching and classification are automatic with rules we have written. Merges the largest names have been
reviewed, but not every name has been checked by hand, and two spellings that look alike may still be the same body.
Individuals are identified by name pattern.
- 82 donations carry a date outside their own financial year. They count in the totals but are ignored for
first and last dates.
- This is not an official AEC publication. For the legal record, use the
AEC Transparency Register.
Offered entirely 'as is' and with goodwill. Please contact us immediately if you have any issues.
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