The GCA has found the arms industry has donated total of $353,000 (over a quarter of a million dollars) to Australian political parties. The figures have been sourced from the Australian Electoral Commission political funding disclosures for the year 2015- 2016.
GCA has also discovered the two major parties, Liberal and Labor, have received donations from Thales Australia Pty Ltd which this year put its F90 military Atrax assault rifle on the US gun market to be sold to US civilians.
Bob Katter's party received the largest proportion of donations a total $108,332. Katter’s son-in- law Rob Nioa, owner of NIOA firearm importing company which imports the Adler shotgun, donated $33,332. The Sporting Shooters Association (Qld) donated $75,000 to Katter’s Party.
The other major gun industry donations went to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party $52,000 and David Lehonhjelm’s Liberal Democratic Party - $ 46,375.
But both Liberal and Labor also received hefty amounts of donations from the arms industry: $46,375 (Liberal) and $33,032 (Labor).
The largest donor was the Sporting Shooters Association which donated a total $90,856, followed by Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia (SIFA) with a total of $63,834.
Donations to political party by the gun lobby compromise the availability, transparency and openness of government
Such donations create an expectation of some kind of policy or other outcome from the donation including the weakening of gun laws.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/15/gun-lobby-donated-350000-to-australian-political-parties-in-a-year