How A $50K Donation Disappeared

Earlier this year, the Australian Financial Review reported on a $49,500 personal political donation from cryptocurrency exchange company Swyftx to Labor MP Andrew Charlton, made during last year's federal election campaign.Charlton's office "declined to comment" on the story, while the Swyftx CEO responded to it directly in a LinkedIn post, where he defended making the donation and explained it was part of a lobbying "long game" and "education process". (Worth noting here that after the election, Charlton was appointed assistant minister for the digital economy, and went on to be a key driver of the new legislation that regulates cryptocurrency.)That donation was originally disclosed on the Australian Electoral Commission's transparency register (which is how the AFR was able to report on it), but when I went to find it there, it had disappeared. It turns out that donation disclosure has since been "amended" to reflect the fact that the money actually went to NSW Labor. (Even though Swyftx clearly thought they'd given it to Charlton.)It also turns out, these sorts of donations - and subsequent "amendments" - happen *quite a lot*.Donors don't realise the money they are "giving" to individual major party candidates is actually going to the party itself. We usually don't get to see it, because it's all 'tided up' before donation disclosures are made public. (Independent candidates, on the other hand, have many donations disclosed next to their names, because they don't have a party machine behind them.)This one, for whatever reason, slipped through. And as an added bonus, we got to hear directly from the donor about their motivations.