1. Why we are conducting this survey

Hi,

This is a short survey to determine whether you, as a member or supporter of the Australian Institute for Progress, are a "property developer" as defined by the Queensland Electoral Act, 1992 and, if you are, what other charities or community groups you support.

The reason for this is that the Electoral Commission of Queensland has decided that we are a "third party" under the act and as such cannot receive donations from property developers. We have very good legal advice that they are wrong and have issued proceedings in the Supreme Court of Queensland.

We have a limited idea who amongst our members or supporters is a property developer, as defined by the act, nor what other organisations they might support.

It is important to identify the size of the issue for us, and also what other organisations might be affected by it. This information could help in the court case, and it could also help after the court case.

Our preliminary research suggests a lot of organisations like ours receive significant donations from property developers, and that the ECQ's reading of the legislation is one that fails the test of commonsense. Being able to demonstrate that should help us immensely. 

The legislation was enacted to stop corruption of elected representatives by property developers. It is hard to see how attending one of our seminars or functions could constitute corruption.

So I would appreciate your help in scoping out this issue more clearly. We will treat your information as confidential and will de-identify anything we put in the public realm. We may also use some of the information to contact community organisations in the same position as us to alert them to the issues that we have discovered.

Regards,

GRAHAM YOUNG
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE FOR PROGRESS
 
33% of survey complete.

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