Election donation laws need urgent change

April 15, 2026 — 5:00am

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In three interviews over the past year and half, Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece has refused to reveal the donor for a proposed fountain in Argyle Square, Carlton. On the surface, this denial of disclosure would seem confounding, and slightly bizarre. It is, after all, merely a fountain. But The Age this week revealed possibly why Reece was reluctant to do so.

The money behind the fountain would be coming from the Marcocci family, whose property holdings include the La Storia development on Argyle Square. The family are property developers who donated to Reece’s lord mayoral election campaign. They also own land in the Macaulay precinct in North Melbourne. Melbourne City Council is examining whether to compulsorily acquire it.

The Macaulay planning scheme amendment was exhibited from August 1 to September 10. Reece at the time was acting lord mayor. On August 6, he vowed to take no donations from developers for his election campaign. In announcing he would run for lord mayor, Reece told a council meeting: “I have declared myself a candidate in the upcoming election. One of the first things I did – in fact, on the day I did that – I have declared that I will not accept donations from property developers in the City of Melbourne.” In the weeks from August 1, Lou Nominees, the investment arm for the Marcocci family, made a submission on the amendment through M3 Group, architects for the family, opposing it. On September 24, Lou Nominees donated $10,000 to the Reece campaign.

It is at this point, the lines blur, but apparently not for Reece. The donors to his campaign were not, in his view, developers, they were property owners.

Reece said last week that what was important was “that conflicts are reported in an open and transparent way, and that is exactly what has occurred at the City of Melbourne”. Of course, there would be no conflicts at all if Victoria banned donations from property developers to local or state politicians. Victoria lags in this area and needs to act quickly to introduce a ban. NSW and the ACT have done so. Queensland had, until it was overturned by the Crisafulli government. South Australia has outlawed all donations.

Fountain leak: Secret philanthropist the lord mayor didn’t want you to know about

On Tuesday, Premier Jacinta Allan, who is in the middle of a cabinet reshuffle, would not be drawn on whether Victoria would ban developer donations or cap local government donations.

“I can’t say too much,” she said. “When the new ministry is sworn in tomorrow, you can ask the local government minister.”

The view of shadow attorney-general James Newbury is that the Coalition did not support any industry-specific bans on donations because “I don’t think it’s reasonable to count people out of being part of the democratic process”.

On Tuesday, Reece finally named the family who had promised to fund the multimillion-dollar fountain.

“We have had an offer by an Italian family, the Marcoccis, to make a philanthropic donation to the City of Melbourne to build a fountain in the square,” he told ABC radio.

“The Marcocci family did make a donation to my campaign, and if it comes to pass that the council makes a decision about that donation to the city to build a fountain, then I will recuse myself from that decision. I’ll step out for that particular council vote.”

The Reece election campaign, known as “Team Nick”, received almost $1 million from 150 donors. As a consequence, those councillors of Roshena Campbell, Kevin Louey and Mark Scott have recused themselves from several council decisions.

Reece and his team have not broken any laws, nor are we suggesting they have. Last July, Reece, on behalf of the council requested a review of donations laws to the state government: the request explicitly asking for the review to consider banning donations from property developers as well as introducing so-called continuous donation reporting.

At present, candidates for council have 40 days to provide details of their donations after the election. This is not good enough. How can voters cast their ballot in full knowledge of who is backing a candidate and by how much if the information isn’t revealed until after the election? There needs to be a change. The information on donations must be disclosed as they are given.

The anti-corruption investigation Operation Sandon was set up by IBAC into accusations of corruption relating to property and planning development at the City of Casey Council. As well as calling for consideration of developer donation bans, in one of its recommendations, it said that “giving voters access to this information before elections reduces the risk of donations enabling improper access and influence”.

In an October 2024 editorial, we noted that none of the major lord mayoral candidates – Arron Wood, Nick Reece or Anthony Koutoufides – was willing to accept our invitation to reveal their campaign donors in real time. Our position remains that voters deserve to know.

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© The Age