PwC gave $50,000 to ALP amid tax furore
PwC made one of its largest ever donations to political parties in the same year its integrity crisis was exposed, including a $50,000 donation to Labor as the scandal escalated.
Australia’s biggest consulting firms donated the most since the 2019 federal election, with nearly $940,000 in declared donations made in the 2022-23 financial year to Labor and the Coalition, the Australian Electoral Commission has revealed.
The sum was almost double the combined $485,139 donated by PwC Australia, Deloitte, KPMG and EY Australia three years ago, but slightly less than the $1m contribution made in the 2018-19 financial year when the 2019 federal election was held.
Embattled consulting firm PwC Australia retained its spot as the largest contributor, and grew donations by 50 per cent in the past financial year to $369,973. Of that, $224,006 was donated to Labor and $145,967 to the Coalition.
Its largest declared donation was made to the federal branch of the Labor Party and recorded on January 24, 2023, for $49,500 – days after its former head of international tax, Peter Collins, was deregistered by the Tax Practitioners Board for sharing confidential government briefings with PwC partners and clients.
It made a further 23 donations for a total of $89,947, with 14 to the Coalition and nine to Labor. The largest donation to the Liberal Party during that period was $19,250, made on April 5, 2023.
Records show that the firm, which for years was the biggest beneficiary of government consulting contracts, kept donations up to both political parties until the final donation of $4500 to the Labor Party in Queensland on May 10. This came after former chief executive Tom Seymour resigned on May 8 after confirming he was linked to a tax leaks scandal.
In 2021-22, it donated $246,532, $246,532 in 2020-21 and $165,711 in 2019-20.
In 2018-19, which included the federal election in 2019, it donated $386,635.
Donations from Ernst & Young soared by 74 per cent in the past year to $227,853 – most of it to Labor, including a $71,500 donation on November 29, 2022, and $30,800 to Labor’s Queensland branch on June 16.
KPMG Australia cut donations by 33 per cent to $163,200 and Deloitte cut them by 26 per cent over the same period to $177,126. Most were donated to Labor over the Coalition.
Greens senator Barbara Pocock, who will grill consulting firms on Friday in her role on the Finance and Public Administration Committee, told The Australian it was astounding that the major firms had increased donations to the major parties at a time when they are in the spotlight.
“The very moment they are in the spotlight accused of unethical behaviour they double down in their attempts to buy favour with politicians,” she said.
“The fact is that the big consulting firms, along with other large corporate donors, have interests that are not aligned with what’s best for Australia as a nation and they don’t hesitate to call on political favours when they need it.”
KPMG, EY and Deloitte confirmed to The Australian that no cash donations are made to political parties and instead donations include in-kind contributions, event sponsorships and membership fees for political party business forums.
“We do not use political donations to gain favour with government or political parties,” a spokesman from Deloitte said.
“Deloitte’s contributions to Australian political parties are primarily for the purpose of facilitating discussion and the exchange of ideas between business, the broader community and government in the formation of policy.”
KPMG told The Australian it had currently paused all political donations while reviewing its policy amid the ongoing debate around political donation reform.
After the effective forced sale of its government consulting business to Allegro Funds in June, PwC in November confirmed it would no longer make political donations – a decision that chief executive Kevin Burrowes said was taken in order to improve the firm’s governance standards.
“They don’t align with community expectations and we have stopped them in their entirety,” he told The Australian in a statement.
“While we can’t change the past, we can take the positive steps we need to take in order to improve our governance standards – and that’s exactly what we are doing”.
Senator Pocock said that consulting firms that make around a quarter of their income from the government should be prohibited from “lining the pockets” of government decision makers in Canberra.
“This practice needs to stop, and I will be arguing for new procurement rules that ban government departments from awarding contracts to any firm that has made donations to political parties,” she said.
