If the likes of Qantas, Lend Lease, Transurban, Telstra, BHP-Billiton, Woolworths, Rio Tinto and Brambles managed to get through 2015-16 without making any political donations, why can’t the big financial services players do the same?

With mining and foreign donations falling away, the financial services sector has been revealed as the most generous industry for Australia’s political parties in the 2015-16 donations data.