Analysis

One Nation’s Victorian candidate Ben Lucas will face court on Friday on two charges relating to health regulation breaches. Meanwhile, ASIC has deregistered one of his businesses and in the processes of deregistering another.

Sanctioned firms aren’t automatically disqualified from supplying services to government agencies. Do procurement rules need to be changed?

Today's disclosures from One Nation MP David Farley shows he's anything but representative of the people the anti-elitist party pretends to represent.

Plus: Why is Joe Aston so generous with MPs? And when did AI slop become 'artwork'?

Will other politicians follow the maverick Nationals senator in adopting US-style investment disclosure rules?

Welcome to the Horse's Mouth, our new column co-published with Crikey on federal MPs’ interest disclosures and other stories from our agents in the field.

In this edition of our Wrap Up column we report Liberal senator James Paterson's secret family home and Penny Wong's failure to declare hospitality and transport from foreign governments on time.

In this edition of our Wrap Up column we report Liberal MP Simon Kennedy's failure to declare where he lives, why Eddie Obeid had to pay his Trotskyist printer on time, and the Labor heavies who turned up to Bob Carr's book launch.

In this edition of our Wrap Up column we report tales from Albo's tennis club and why Angus Taylor needs to disclose any hidden assets in his family trusts. Plus we look at whether Deputy PM Richard Marles is a real fake Colonel.

In this edition of our Wrap Up column we look at the Shadow Treasurer's strange share trades, Bill Gates' funding of aid junkets, Jane Hume's new David Jones card, and the unusual disclosures of Jason Clare and Ross Cadell.

Gift givers include foreign governments, corporations and lobbyists — as well as AI companies such as OpenAI, which hosted several dinners for senior government officials.

Emails and WhatsApp messages released by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) reveal a drawn-out dispute between Price and a former staffer over a rental car booking. In the end, the IPEA accepted Price's version of events and billed the staffer.

Many venal and vile characters have trod the halls of power in Australia. We've scoured the archives to try and identify every politician convicted of a crime since the 1800s.

Australia and the US have signed a landmark critical minerals deal worth billions. It’s been a good time to be an investor in the lead-up.

Trusts are the financial vehicle of choice for wealthy people to pay less tax and hide their assets. Should we be concerned that federal MPs and their families have so many?

Interest disclosures provide the public transparency around conflicts of interest and corruption. But Australia’s system lacks teeth.

With Jacinta Nampijinpa Price facing a defamation case and a booting from the shadow cabinet, it pays to have friends in high places.

See which companies and industries are popular with MPs and their families, and check out parliament’s biggest shareholders.

New analysis of the interests registers reveals MPs have declared 458 properties, with over 30% of MPs disclosing they or their families own three or more properties.

A Nationals senator and shadow minister has said he’ll begin regularly disclosing his diary. But there is no requirement on other shadow ministers and ministers to do the same.

Over three years after leaving parliament, the former federal MP still owes the Commonwealth money for charging family travel to the taxpayer.

Nearly 300 Australians are registered as beneficial owners of companies in the tax haven of Luxembourg. Today we look at four: a mystery banker, a Bond Corp fraudster, an illegal drug supplier, and a Kremlin associate.

A One Nation candidate, who is ‘passionate about men’s rights’, has 15 convictions for breaching a family violence restraining order, court documents state.

Sakellarios Bairamis believes in ‘stronger measures to tackle crime’. He’s also faced criminal court proceedings on five matters over the past six years.

A late disclosure, an undeclared directorship, and unanswered questions about investments in Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s discretionary family trust.

Open Politics is calling on politicians to stop accepting gifts, sponsored travel and hospitality from vested interests. Help us by telling your local MP and senators that you don’t support this grubby practice and want it banned.

Join us for this eye-opening seminar on 17 March by a former AFP officer on how groups identify, target and soften public officials up to act corruptly.

Richard Marles keeps nearly every gift he receives, but he doesn’t declare everything he should.

The Deputy Prime Minister has an electorate office and ministerial office only a few hundred metres apart. Go figure.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles once described David Collard as 'innately entrepreneurial [and] values driven'. The AFP has now recommended charges be laid against Collard and his associates.

The inside story of how Richard Marles’ fondness for the US, hawkishness on China, and gullibility were played on by a businessman whose offices were raided by the AFP for alleged tax fraud.

The gambling industry has provided nearly 300 tickets and gifts to MPs in the past five years.

While federal ministers are prevented from owning shares, it’s a free for all for people with connections and influence with ministers, raising questions about whether non-public information is being used in share trading.

Our new analysis, based on automatically updated data, shows which public companies and industries federal parliamentarians and their families have shares in, and identifies the big shareholders.

Federal MP Bob Katter's vague disclosures to parliament’s interests register read like the ramblings of a mad uncle after a night on the tiles. They also demonstrate his wilful disregard for the rules and the need for reform to compel MPs to declare their interests.

An MP in Federal Parliament was charged with domestic violence-related offences on two occasions last decade.

The failed Australian businessman and former confidant of the Deputy Prime Minister has a record of getting arrest. And getting off.

In the past seven months the CEO of Scale Facilitation David Collard has had his business raided by the AFP over alleged tax fraud and then wound up for insolvency, faced lawsuits for unpaid wages and debts, and defaulted on the purchase of battery start up Britishvolt. Now he’s up on assault charges in the United States.

Scale Facilitation was raided in June by the Australian Federal Police over an alleged $76m tax fraud and now tax experts in the UK are calling on authorities there to investigate the firm over its Value Added Tax (VAT) returns.

Scale Facilitation, a company raided by the AFP in June over the biggest alleged tax fraud in Australian history, established a subsidiary in Malta with the help of PwC to reduce its tax obligations, Open Politics can reveal.

Federal parliament needs to act against MPs who don’t declare their private interests and restrict gifts, free travel, and hospitality from influence peddlers. Check out our proposed reforms.

Exclusive: The CEO and founder of scandal plagued Scale Facilitation left PwC in circumstances he’d prefer to keep under wraps.

Scale Facilitation, the scandal plagued company promoted by the Deputy Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, is alleged to have breached New York State wage theft laws.

Australian entrepreneur and ex-PwC partner David A. Collard is being sued for rent on both his fancy apartment in Manhattan as well as Scale's 88th floor World Trade Center headquarters. That's on top of an ATO tax raid, unpaid staff and creditors, and defaulting on the purchase of Britishvolt in the UK.

Scale Facilitation is in default in its takeover of Britishvolt. After a financial crime taskforce raid in Australia and failures to pay staff both here and in the US, its chief executive David A. Collard remains defiant. Open Politics questions why PwC is getting paid when staff and creditors have been missing out.

An ex-PwC partner's lithium battery startup Scale Facilitation pulled a top flight crowd from both sides of Australian politics to its grand Manhattan HQ opening in December. Since then, Australian staff haven't been paid on time, the AFP has raided their Geelong offices over alleged tax fraud, and now we can reveal concerning and bizarre activities stateside.

In what is becoming an all to regular occurrence, another federal parliamentarian has failed to disclose their privately funded overseas trip - the ninth we've discovered in less than eight months. Open Politics looks at what's driving a culture of non-compliance and how to fix it.

Despite our emails, phone calls, and now an FOI request to his office, Richard Marles just won't divulge who provided him with a free round of golf at an exclusive US golf club on the eve of AUKUS talks last year.

Senator Hanson's statement to the Register of Senators’ Interests last week is one of the strangest we've seen: she declared no longer receiving rental income from a property she never declared to the register.

Nearly 30% of federal parliamentarians have accepted sponsored overseas travel and hospitality since the 2019 election, raising questions about undue influence peddling from foreign and commercial interests.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles has breached parliamentary rules and the Ministerial Code of Conduct by not disclosing who gave him a free round of golf at a top US club with an ugly past.

The other week our social media monitoring uncovered five politicians who didn't declare privately-sponsored junkets. Today we look at two more and ask why interest disclosure rules are not being enforced.

Another day, another revelation. Our social media sleuthing has uncovered more MPs who haven’t declared privately sponsored overseas trips.

If you are a politician who appears in happy snaps while on privately funded junkets, it's probably a good idea to disclose who funded your trip to the parliament's interests registers.

In addition to donating millions to Labor and the Coalition parties, gaming companies and pokies venues are giving hundreds of expensive gifts to their federal MPs, our new analysis reveals. Open Politics shows who's giving and who’s getting, as well as those with shares in gambling companies.

Open Politics' analysis shows which public companies and industries are popular investments with federal MPs, who the big shareholders and traders are, and highlights potential conflicts of interest.

While the Albanese government seeks to toughen tobacco controls, the Assistant Health Minister Ged Kearney is investing in index funds with shareholdings in the tobacco industry. Update: Kearney divested three days after this story was published.

Much is made of the corrupting impact of political donations but little attention is paid to the non-monetary kind: gifts, free travel and hospitality that many federal parliamentarians eagerly accept from vested interests. Open Politics looks at the risk these benefits pose and the need for reform.

Liberal senator and shadow minister Hollie Hughes has breached Senate rules by not declaring her sponsored travel to Israel. Open Politics looks at a repeat offender and the need for reform. Update: Hughes disclosed the trip three days after this story was published.

While owning a home has become out of reach for millions of Australians, many parliamentarians are building large real estate portfolios with the help of tax concessions and taxpayer-funded travel allowances.

Following Open Politics' revelations about the shareholdings of Bill Shorten, Tim Ayres and Kristy McBain on 27 August, we've found Assistant Health and Ageing Minister Ged Kearney has breached the ministerial code of conduct by having indirect shareholdings in the Australian healthcare sector.

Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes has not declared to the Register of Senators' Interests a helicopter flight she took as a guest of the Port of Newcastle Corporation in 2020, Open Politics can reveal.

Many federal politicians don't declare their private interests, fail to fully disclose them, or don't do so in the required time, and the officials who manage the interest registers say it's not their job to enforce the rules. Open Politics looks at a disclosure regime that only serves politicians.

Federal politicians from NSW and Queensland never miss an opportunity to promote their love of the people's game in the belief it makes them more relatable to voters - think the PM with the Sharks and the Opposition Leader with his Rabbitohs. But, unlike the average spectator, they rarely pay to attend games, with the NRL and others providing free tickets. Does the public end up paying the bill?

The (un)successful campaign to cut the beer tax was funded by the Australian Hotels Association, the Australian Brewers Association, and Clubs Australia. Open Politics details the booze and hospitality these organisations and their members have dished out to MPs and senators since the last election.(Despite Newscorp media confidently predicting a budget cut, the night turned into a fizzer for the industry. All that lobbying and largesse wasted.)

One in four parliamentarians or their immediate family have declared shareholdings in or gifts and travel or hospitality from companies that are among the nation's 100 largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters, an examination of the interest registers reveals.

Qantas and Virgin provide MPs and senators with access to luxury airport lounges and flight upgrades. But at what cost. Open Politics tallies up the freebies being dished out by Australia’s domestic carriers and foreign airlines.

Cross referencing the Australian Electoral Commission's donations register with the Parliament's interests registers reveals industrial scale influence peddling, with some of Australia's largest donors providing federal politicians with food, alcohol, and sports and concert tickets. And a Coalition MP suspects this is not the full extent of the largesse.

Unlike MPs, senators are not required to publicly disclose the interests of their partners and children. As a result, almost nothing is known about the family interests of 11 ministers and 10 shadow ministers. Open Politics discusses why this matters.

If you want a free overseas holiday it pays to be an elected official. But it may not be costless. Here's our analysis on the foreign governments, think tanks, and lobby groups giving junkets to our MPs and senators.

Politicians are the big winners from Australia's gambling companies. See our analysis of who's receiving hospitality and gifts from an industry that ignores its anti-money laundering obligations.

This data contains details on all 299 declarations of tickets, hospitality, gifts, and shareholdings since the May 2019 election.

MPs and their families have declared over 400 new holdings or divestments in listed companies since the May 2019 election.