Foundation 51: Email suggests $200,000 spent on CLP election campaign
A newly-released email from the director of a company under investigation by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) appears to confirm that the company spent money on an election campaign that was never declared as a political donation.
Foundation 51 has been at the centre of a political storm in the Northern Territory since May when a series of leaked emails raised questions about whether the company, set up in 2009, was receiving donations on behalf of the Country Liberal Party (CLP).
The new email, obtained exclusively by the ABC and written by company director Graeme Lewis, was sent to then NT chief minister Terry Mills and four other members of the CLP executive team eight weeks after the CLP took government in 2012.
Mr Lewis has today told the ABC that "no money was ever paid to the CLP, and there was no financial relationship".
The email lays out in detail how $200,000 of undeclared monies contributed to Foundation 51 were spent on election-related activities in the two months immediately prior to polling day.
It lists another $216,000 spent on “polling and associated research for the August election” and “Concept Development for [the] August election” in the financial year 2011/12.
"Once again, the contributors were clearly aware, and did generally stipulate that the funds raised would be devoted to NT elections in 2012 or thereafter," Mr Lewis wrote on November 26, 2012.
He said money collected in the eight weeks leading up to polling day was spent on "polling $110,000, consultants re the debt strategies and policies $34,000, concept development $34,160, plus travel, McGrath outgoings etc".
Mr Lewis wrote "I will be mortified if this information becomes widely known. It must be closely held for obvious reasons".
The director of the Country Liberal's election campaign in 2012 was James McGrath, who is now a Queensland senator for the Liberal Party.
In a statement, Mr Lewis told the ABC: "McGrath was paid by the company for minor outgoings prior to being appointed as campaign director during which time he assisted in the workings and research being conducted by the company.
"As far as I know, once he was appointed, all payments to him for his services were made directly to him by the CLP."
Mr McGrath has told the ABC in a statement: "I am proud to have worked for the Country Liberals, the Territory party, as part of a team that defeated a tired, long-term Labor government. In relation to your email, I think those questions are best answered by the CLP."
The current president of the Country Liberal Party, Ross Connolly, who was copied on the November 2012 email, told the ABC today that "the money never went through the party's hands".
In July, the ABC revealed Mr Lewis had asked current NT Chief Minister Adam Giles to look over a press release refuting the Labor Opposition claims the company was a CLP slush fund.
