Big four consulting firms donated more to political parties in the last financial year, giving away more than $900,000, as Federal Parliament intensified its scrutiny of consultants and their access to governments.
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Collectively, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Ernst&Young and KPMG donated $938,152 to political parties in 2022-23, just above their sum for 2021-22 of $859,655.
The donations came against the backdrop of the unfurling PwC Australia tax leak scandal, an ensuing Senate inquiry, and steps taken by the Albanese government to reduce the federal public sector's reliance on consultants.
The firms all ranked in the top 30 of political donors in the last financial year. PwC, which donated $369,000, had the 11th highest return overall.
PwC announced it would stop giving political donations at the end of the last financial year.
![Big four consulting firms made more than $900,000 worth of political donations in the 2022-23 financial year. Pictures Shutterstock Big four consulting firms made more than $900,000 worth of political donations in the 2022-23 financial year. Pictures Shutterstock](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/143258707/3dc2416b-fa83-4df8-b666-0917fd770690.jpg/r0_0_720_405_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Labor received more donations than the Liberals, raking in a total of $591,426 from the consulting firms, across the federal Australian Labor Party and its state and territory branches.
The ALP received the largest chunk of donations to the party (worth $418,418), while the rest was divided up between the Western Australia, NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia branches.
The firms meanwhile donated a total of $318,111 to the Liberal Party of Australia and its divisions.
The federal organisation received a $233,234 share, while the divisions of Western Australia, the ACT, Tasmania, Victoria and NSW received the rest.
The National Party of Australia received a much smaller sum of $5500, while its affiliated parties in Queensland, NSW and Victoria collected $19,250, $1865 and $2000 respectively.
PwC Australia, the firm which triggered the consultants crackdown, donated the most to the ALP of the big four, and increased its donations by more than $120,000.
The firm donated a total of $224,006 to the ALP and its branches, up from $121,470 in the 2021-22 financial year.
Its donations to the Liberal Party and divisions increased slightly from $121,762 in 2021-22 to $125,652 in 2022-23, as did donations to the National Party and affiliated branches - which totalled $20,315 in 2022-23, up from $3300 in 2021-22.
PwC Australia sold its government advisory business last year, after the Tax Practitioner's Board alleged the firm's former head of international tax had shared confidential information from a Treasury briefing with other staff and partners.
The regulator banned Peter-John Collins from practising as a tax agent for two years in January 2023.
In May, emails tabled in Federal Parliament alleged 63 people had received the confidential information, prompting Treasury to refer the matter to the Australian Federal Police.
PwC Australia's chief executive officer Kevin Burrowes has since said the firm was "deeply sorry for the misconduct that occurred and notes that significant repairs have been made and will continue to be made".
Its public sector business was sold to private equity firm, Allegro Funds, for $1, resulting in the transfer of about 130 former PwC partners and 1750 staff to Scyne Advisory.
The Department of Finance has since greenlit the offshoot to take over existing PwC contracts, and begin contracting with the federal government.
A Senate inquiry set up in the wake of the scandal has been probing the integrity of consultants, and the governments dealings with them, and is due to release a final report on its findings later this year.