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Seven companies unlawfully hid political donations from NSW planning authorities

<span>Photograph: Paul Miller/AAP</span>
Photograph: Paul Miller/AAP

Authorities say seven companies were found to have unlawfully hidden political donations from planning authorities following a Guardian investigation.

Last year, the Guardian revealed that 13 companies – including major corporates Woolworths, Origin Energy and Caltex – had failed to declare sizeable political donations to the Liberal and Labor parties when seeking more than 50 separate approvals to develop property in New South Wales.

Failing to declare donations to NSW planning authorities when seeking to develop or modify property is a criminal offence.

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The companies had declared the donations to the electoral commission, as required, but failed to declare them to planning authorities. The discrepancies went undiscovered until the Guardian approached the NSW planning department, which promised to investigate.

On Thursday, it confirmed that seven of the 13 companies were found to have breached the law.

It issued four of those companies – major food corporate Teys Australia, ski resort operator Perisher Blue, ABC Paper and Paper Mills, and Riverina Oils and Bioenergy Pty Ltd – with official cautions.

A spokesman said the department was unable to fine the companies because it did not have the power to do so at the time the offences were committed.

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Teys Australia, the department said, had “expressed remorse” and pledged to ban all political donations in NSW to ensure there was no reoccurrence.

Both Riverina Oils and ABC Paper expressed remorse and created internal registers of political donations to avoid repeats.

The department also found another three companies to have breached the law, but took no further action because the transgressions were minor in nature.

It didn’t name the three companies which it chose not to take action against.

Woolworths, Caltex and Origin all conceded errors when originally approached by the Guardian last year, though it is not clear if they were the subject of adverse findings by the department.

Most of the companies previously characterised the mistakes as “administrative” in nature, and reiterated that the donations had been declared to electoral authorities, just not to the planning department.

But, administrative or not, such failures can have serious ramifications.

Breaches can result in criminal prosecution and financial penalties.

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Last year, Optus was convicted of a criminal offence, fined $25,000, and ordered to pay $40,000 in legal costs for accidentally failing to declare six donations worth $5,400 to the Liberal and Labor parties while seeking approval for work in the Snowy Mountains ahead of the ski season.

The donations it failed to declare were described as “small payments to attend events”.

In 2017, AGL was convicted and fined $124,000 for 11 offences relating to its failure to disclose donations to planning authorities.

The purpose of the laws is to further minimise any perception of undue influence on planning processes, an area of high corruption risk.