Our faithful correspondent Bob Burton has been digging into the dark world of political donations and come up with some very interesting findings which he’s published as a series over at Tasmanian Times.
A bird’s-eye view follows, but it’s certainly worth clicking through to the full story for each. An interesting insight into health sector lobbying.
- Over a number of years, Burton found that Pathology Australia, the peak lobby group for the $2.5-billion-per-year private pathology sector, failed to disclose more than $100,000 in donations to both the Tasmanian Liberal and Federal Labor parties.
- Sonic Healthcare and its Tasmanian subsidiary diagnostic services and Healthscope were also major donors to the state’s Liberals in the three years to 2014, with speculation it was linked to a push for outsourcing of hospital pathology to the private sector.
- Amid these donations, Burton reports that Health Minister Sussan Ley is considering Pathology Australia requests for regulation of rents on private pathology clinics.
