One Nation asks Sydney donors to sign NDA at $3,000-a-head fundraiser
Invitations to next Thursday's cocktail-dress event with Pauline Hanson and senior party figures require guests to keep attendee identities and discussions secret.
At a glance
- One Nation wants donors at a $3,000-a-head Sydney fundraiser to sign a non-disclosure agreement covering the event.
- The NDA bars guests from revealing attendee identities or discussions and continues after the event ends.
- Transparency campaigners say the move raises concerns about cash-for-access fundraising ahead of a NSW election.
One Nation is asking donors attending an invite-only, $3,000-a-head fundraiser in central Sydney next Thursday to sign a non-disclosure agreement covering the event, according to an invitation seen by Guardian Australia.
The cocktail-dress function, described in the invitation as a "private and very discrete" four-hour evening, will be held at an undisclosed venue. Donors are told they will meet party leader Pauline Hanson; One Nation's national director, James Ashby; federal MP Barnaby Joyce; the federal party's chief of staff, Chris Taylor; and its New South Wales leader, Mike Newman. A now defunct webpage for the event said registered attendees would receive a text message with the location one hour before the start.
The agreement bars guests from disclosing the identities of attendees. "Do not disclose information about what occurs at the event, including conversations, activities, photographs, video or other details obtained through attending," it states. It also prohibits providing information or comments about the event to "journalists, media organisations, bloggers or other publishers", and says the obligations continue after the event ends. The invitation reportedly promises a cocktail and canapé service and a live auction.
Major-party sources call NDA unprecedented
Such fundraising dinners are common and are frequently held by the Labor and Liberal parties, but senior sources from both major parties involved in running them told Guardian Australia the use of non-disclosure agreements was unprecedented. A $2,000 invite-only One Nation event in Melbourne in September did not include an NDA.
Clancy Moore, chief executive of Transparency International Australia and a long-term critic of closed-door fundraising, said charging guests and requiring silence "raises serious questions about transparency ahead of an important state election".
"Voters deserve to know whether any political commitments are being made behind closed doors to paying guests. A non-disclosure agreement should never be used to shield political fundraising from public scrutiny," he said.
Christian Slattery, a senior campaigner at the Australian Democracy Network, said Australians were "rightly suspicious of exclusive cash-for-access events". "Slapping an NDA on a political fundraiser sets a worrying precedent. Democracy thrives in the sunlight," he said.
Donations and polling context
Disclosures with the NSW Electoral Commission show One Nation has declared $5,000 in reportable donations so far in 2026-27, across three donations for a fundraising dinner with Joyce. Over the same period NSW Labor recorded $286,200 in total reportable donations and the NSW Liberals $95,900. The threshold for a reportable donation in New South Wales is $1,000.
In early September, the address of a three-course fundraising lunch with Hanson in Melbourne leaked to the media, and journalists photographed donors entering the venue. Other high-profile fundraisers in New South Wales have drawn protesters, leading to clashes with One Nation supporters and a heavy police presence. One Nation has also required state election candidates to sign non-disclosure agreements.
The fundraiser comes during a major donations drive in New South Wales, where the party polled 25% of the first-preference vote in a Sydney Morning Herald Resolve poll in September, ahead of the Coalition on 24% and behind Labor on 29%. Internal Labor polling suggests One Nation could win more than 20 seats in the state's lower house. Newman and Joyce hosted several publicly advertised, small-ticket dinners and forums in October, with more planned for November.
Source: The Guardian World.
Questions and answers
- What does One Nation's fundraiser non-disclosure agreement require?
- It bars donors from disclosing attendee identities and details of discussions, photographs or recordings, and forbids giving information or comments to journalists, media outlets, bloggers or other publishers. The obligations continue after the event.
- Who will attend the One Nation Sydney fundraiser?
- Donors are told they will meet Pauline Hanson, national director James Ashby, federal MP Barnaby Joyce, chief of staff Chris Taylor and NSW leader Mike Newman at an undisclosed central Sydney venue.
- Are political fundraising dinners with NDAs common in Australia?
- Such dinners are common and frequently run by Labor and the Liberals, but senior sources from both major parties told Guardian Australia that using non-disclosure agreements for them was unprecedented.
