LNP gets $100,000 from developer-linked trust two months after Brisbane land rights awarded

Electoral Commission of Queensland disclosure logs show the Lancini Family Discretionary Trust’s $100,000 donation, declared on Thursday, was the biggest single contribution to the LNP since the Crisafulli government overturned the state’s developer donation ban. In September, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie announced 13 luxury towers, housing up to 5000 people, would be built on the Hamilton Northshore site. Lancini Property Group is one of five companies selected by Economic Development Queensland to develop the six-hectare site, which is expected to include 2200 units, a shopping centre, hotel, childcare facility and medical services. Under the previous Labor government, the Hamilton precinct was earmarked for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games athletes’ village. The LNP government scrapped that plan after accepting a recommendation that alternative site assessments be explored. Lancini Property Group chairman Laurence Lancini sits on the independent infrastructure authority’s board and has told The Australian his Hamilton interests were on the conflict of interest register.

Defending the contribution, Lancini Property Group chief executive Tomas Lancini said the family was "supporting the party that is supporting Queensland’s growth". Labor opposition housing spokeswoman Meaghan Scanlon said the donation raised serious questions. "Every Queenslander should question why a property developer has donated $100,000 to the LNP right after being gifted publicly owned land by the state government," she said. "The LNP continue to put the interests of their property developer mates over the interests of Queenslanders – Queenslanders who are struggling to afford the basics." Scanlon added that this was "exactly the kind of situation the Crime and Corruption Commission raised concerns with".

A Crisafulli government spokesperson said Economic Development Queensland was completely separate to the infrastructure authority and conducted an independent and rigorous process to select the five proponents. "We delivered on the position we took to the election to level the playing field for political donations, and Queenslanders voted for it after they saw through Labor’s disgraceful scare campaigns, which were bankrolled by the violent and misogynistic CFMEU," the spokesperson said. The previous Labor government banned developer donations in 2017, but the LNP reversed that ban in March to end what Attorney-General Deb Frecklington described as an "electoral financial gerrymander from the former Labor government" which benefited from union donations. Labor’s ban was in response to a Crime and Corruption Commission recommendation that council candidates be prohibited from receiving developer donations due to the corruption risk.