$700,000 Priestly election spend revealed

It made his campaign the eighth most costly campaign at the 2022 Federal election.

Of the Priestly campaign spend there were $624,127 received in gifts or donations, from 185 sources.

And while the significant campaign cost will turn many heads, it paled against the costs of winning a federal seat for six of the “Teal Independents’’ — led by the Simon Holmes a Court-led Climate 200 organisation.

Monique Ryan had a $2.1 million cost attached to her campaign to beat former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, including $1.8 million in donations.

Former journalist Zoe Daniel spent $1.5 miilion to beat assistant minister Tim Wilson in the seat of Goldstein and in excess of $1.2 million was spent on two northern Sydney seats for victories.

Mr Priestly, on a two-party preferred basis, won 46.19 per cent of the vote as Nationals candidate Sam Birrell won the seat and followed in the footsteps of the electorate’s inaugural member Damien Drum.

In the initial count there was a 25 per cent swing against Mr Birrell and he polled only 600 more votes in the initial account than Mr Priestly (of the 95,191 eligible votes cast).

Liberal candidate Steve Brooks, who also campaigned fiercely, finished with 18 per cent of the vote and Labor party member Bill Lodwick polled 11 per cent.

Mr Priestly did not align himself to the “Teal” campaign, explaining throughout the campaign that his supporters had strong links to the electorate.

That was proved with the release of the donors list.

The largest of Mr Priestly’s campaign contributions came from PSC Insurance Brokers chief executive officer Ben Goodall.

In a five-day period, between January 20 and 24, he donated $100,000 to Mr Priestly’s campaign — a pair of $40,000 contributions and a third $20,000 donation.

Jim Andreadis, celebrated in the Shepparton community for his work as a philanthropist, made three separate donations to Mr Priestly’s campaign in April.

On April 17 a $20,000 donation was recorded, then another $30,000 contribution on April 29. A third, much smaller, donation of $125 was also recorded by the AEC.

For Mr Andreadis the contributions are not unusual, in that same month he donated an empty plot of land in Mooroopna to the FoodShare organisation.

This donation of suitable land gave FoodShare the leverage to secure $600,000 in funding from the Federal Government towards building a new facility.

Jim and wife Angela were also key partners to Kialla’s Museum of Vehicle Evolution and the Lighthouse Project Initiative’s Pit Stop program, for disengaged youth.

A third $50,000 plus contribution was made from the Lisa Jane Mt Rose Trust, while Katunga Fresh Food made a $25,000 donation to the campaign.

Angela Eastaugh was the last of the contributors listed on the AEC page, having contributed $25,000.

The AEC’s Transparency Register details donations, electoral expenditure and discretionary benefits of 1590 (from a total of 1624) candidates who contested the federal election.

Of those returns only 1001 lodged nil returns.

Candidates endorsed by a registered political party (Nationals, Liberal or Labor for example) may submit a ‘’nil return’’ and include reporting into the party’s annual return.

Candidates are required to disclose the total sum of donations received and used to fund their campaign, along with the number of donors and details of donations received where those donations total more than $14,500 from a single source.