PBL, Austereo and Mitchell among big political donors
Times may be tough, but several big media organisations and personalities were still able to find the funds to make donations to both the Liberals and Labor, the Australian Election Commission has revealed.
According to the AEC’s annual summary of political donations for the 2007-8 financial year, PBL – which owns ACP and the Nine Network – donated $20,000 to the NSW division of the Liberal party in November 2007. Then a fortnight later it donated $50,000 to the NSW branch of the ALP.
Austereo was even more generous, giving $110,000 to the ALP and $100,000 to the Liberals.
Dame Elisabeth Murdoch – Rupert Murdoch’s mother – gave a total of $26,000 to the Liberals.
Meanwhile, Harold Mitchell, boss of Mitchell Communications Group, Australia’s biggest independent media buying shop, donated $50,000 to the Liberal Party.
Other similarly generous media types includes NSW-based Macgregor Public Relations, which gave a total of nearly $50,000 to the ALP and just over $26,000 to the Liberals.
Network Ten gave $75,000 each to the ALP and the Liberals.
Roslyn Packer, widow of Kerry Packer, gave $11,000 to the Liberals.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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