WHAT WAS CLAIMED
The Australian Electoral Commission received $48 million from the CFMEU.
OUR VERDICT
False. The payments were made to the CFMEU by a coal company.
AAP FACTCHECK - The Australian Electoral Commission has not received millions of dollars from one of the country's most powerful unions, despite false claims online.
The screenshot used as evidence actually shows payments from a private coal company to the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU).
The AEC is an independent statutory body that receives its funding from the federal government and some revenue from fees and fines.
A Facebook post featuring a screenshot from the AEC website claims the election watchdog received money from the union.
"Why did the Australian Election Commission (AEC) receive $48 MILLION from the CFMEU?" the caption said.
The image matches data from the AEC Transparency Register, which tracks donations and election campaign spending for registered entities, including political parties and trade unions, each financial year.
However, the image does not show any contributions made by the CFMEU to the AEC.
The screenshot actually shows the AEC register listing for Ableshore Pty Ltd, a labour-hire subsidiary of mining giant Glencore.
A drop-down menu on that page, titled 'Named on the following annual returns as providing funds', shows the CFMEU listed twice under "other receipts" of $8,732,304 in 2021-22 and $39,430,146 in 2022-23.
The AEC confirmed that the screenshot did not show a payment by the CFMEU, rather they are payments from Abelshore to the union.
"Given the amounts are disclosed as 'Other Receipts', this means that the CFMEU believe the amounts disclosed do not meet the definition of a donation/gift under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Electoral Act)," an AEC spokesperson told AAP FactCheck.
The spokesperson confirmed that the AEC received the vast majority of its funding from the federal government, the details of which it reports in a Portfolio Budget Statement (See Table 1.1, page 85).
Other smaller revenue collected by the commission includes the $20 fines given to those who don't vote in an election or referendum, election nomination fees for parties and candidates, and fees for running industrial ballots.
"I'm not aware of the AEC running any ballots on behalf of the CFMEU during the 2021-22 or 2022-23 financial years," the AEC spokesperson said.
"If we did … This fee would be substantially lower than the $48 million alleged in the Facebook post you have provided."
Then AEC Commissioner Tom Rogers was queried about Abelshore's payment to the CFMEU during Senate estimates (page 91) in May 2024.
"You have tens of millions, $48 million as I said, flying from a coal company through a subsidiary, through a union to the Labor Party but the coal company does not show up in the returns to the Labor Party," Senator Malcolm Roberts asked.
"Can you explain the difficulties in finding out where the money was originally coming from on the returns that are lodged?"
Mr Rogers took the question on notice, saying at the time he had not seen the return in question, but that he was "not aware that any of that breaches the existing legislation".
In a subsequently supplied answer, the electoral commissioner said: "The amounts reported to CFMMEU (from Abelshore) were not reported as donations. They were reported as other receipts. Therefore a donor return by Glencore is not required under the Electoral Act."
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