Malcolm Turnbull donates $25,000 to the Australian Labor Party.

Turnbull donated $25,000 to Labor

EXCLUSIVE Taylor Auerbach
The Daily Telegraph
September 17, 2015

AUSTRALIA’S newest Liberal Prime Minister was ­responsible for a series of hefty donations to the ALP totalling at least $25,000 about 15 years ago.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Malcolm Turnbull, who was sworn in to the prime ministership on Tuesday ploughed the cash into ALP coffers through his company Wilcrow Pty Ltd.

Australian Electoral Commission records show that in the financial year 1998-99, Wilcrow gave $15,000 to the ALP and a further $10,000 in the year 1999-00.

The latter donation went to the Victorian branch of the federal Labor Party, the faction from which Turnbull’s current political adversary Bill Shorten hailed.

At the time of the donation, Shorten was the Australian Workers’ Union Victorian state secretary.

Mr Turnbull and his wife Lucy have been directors of Wilcrow since 1989. Records show they were sole directors at the time of the donations.

During the late 1990s Turnbull campaigned for Australia to become a republic.

“The donations were made during Mr Turnbull’s time as chairman of the ARM and ­director of Goldman Sachs Australia,” a spokesman for the Prime Minister said.