One Nation to ‘audit’ donations to prove authenticity

One Nation says it will undertake a “forensic audit” of the donations it has received in a fundraising drive this week, in a bid to prove to Australia’s political establishment that the contributions are real.

As of midday Thursday, a donation tracker on One Nation’s website claims the party has received nearly $1.9m in contributions for its campaign in Labor-held seats. That figure is unverified though, as the party does not disclose its donations in real time and the website provides no details of purported donations.

Liberal and Labor figures have cast doubt on the veracity of the donation amount. Prime minister Albanese, when asked about the figure Pauline Hanson claims to have raised, even said: “Did she, though? Did she, what evidence is there?”

One Nation figures are furious about the doubt cast on the fundraising drive by Liberal and Labor. A One Nation spokesperson told Guardian Australia the party would undertake a “forensic audit” of the donations to prove they were authentic. The spokesperson said a report would be released publicly in some form, but did not give a timetable.

The spokesperson said the party had received about 28,000 individual donations, with the highest being about $15,000. Each of these donations is below the Australian Electoral Commission’s disclosure threshold for donations, which is set at $16,900, and therefore none of those would be captured or published by the AEC – meaning the only way to verify the donations, or know their source, is if One Nation voluntarily publishes that information.