Good morning, early birds. Coronavirus-related discrimination has reached new highs (or lows, really) on both sides of the country, and in the past four years, fossil-fuel companies have increased their political donations two-fold. It's the news you need to know, with Chris Woods.
Mathias Cormann's maths lets him down once again...
Unlike its peers, one major bank would prefer voters didn't know how often it buys access to politicians. Which bank?
Yesterday's political donation data dump should have been a massive story. So where was the mainstream media?
Millions of dollars flow to both major political parties each year, and not from the places you might expect.
While big bank donations to parties have dried up, the world's big consulting firms have replaced them as sources of political funding, all while taxpayers hand more and more money back.
The majority of the money came from the sources you'd expect...
Record levels of fossil fuel donations were pumped into our political system last year. Advocates for climate action were totally outgunned.
Today's political donations data shows that money dominates Australian politics, now more than ever.
A federal ICAC inquiring into federal donations would go a long way towards addressing federal rent-seeking and corruption.
The Great Rort
The Price of Access