The federal Liberals reported receiving $39.5 million, an amount that was swelled by $25 million in public funding from the Australian Electoral Commission for the 2022 election.
The data shows that the big four consultancies continued to split donations among the major parties.
PwC donated $369,973, EY $227,000, Deloitte Touche Tomatsu $177,126 and KPMG $163,200 in 2022-23.
PwC announced in July it would stop making political donations, and will make none in the 2023-24 financial year.
Other notable corporate donors included the Pharmacy Guild ($355,780), drugmaker lobby group Medicines Australia ($255,096), the Minerals Council ($231,080), Macquarie Group ($202,950), liquor retailer Endeavour Group ($169,546), gas producer Santos ($169,090), Tabcorp ($161,150) and Westpac Bank ($150,349).
Mr Palmer stood out as the biggest individual donor, with his company Mineralogy providing $7 million to the UAP. The party has just one federal representative, Victorian senator Ralph Babet.
Cardboard king Anthony Pratt scaled back his donations but was still Australia’s third-most generous benefactor. Pratt Holdings donated $1,010,500, all to the Labor Party.
In an indication of the growing profile of third-party campaigners, the second-biggest donor was Perth-based business Hadley Holdings, which gave $1,025,000 to right-wing advocacy group Advance Australia. The AEC’s records do not indicate who owns Hadley Holdings.
Advance Australia, which played a key role marshalling the No campaign to the Voice referendum, reported receiving $5.1 million.
Climate 200, the political fundraising body behind the success of the teal independent MP movement, also remained popular with donors, reaping $4.7 million.
The fourth-biggest individual donor was Marcus Catsaras from the NSW Central Coast, who gave $1 million to Climate 200. Sydney share trader Robert Keldoulis donated $702,113 to Climate 200.
Donations for the Voice referendum campaign will be publicly reported in April.
