The LNP is urging the Labor government not to change the donation declaration laws it put in place arguing it could be "dangerous to create a situation where people are afraid to donate" and the state may not have the legislative power to make the change.
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Labor is seeking to lower the donation declaration limit back to $1000.
During its term in office, the LNP tethered the state's declaration limit to the Commonwealth's, which is currently indexed at $12,800.
The change meant any individual donations under, first $12,400 and later $12,800, went undeclared. Attendees at a fundraiser which cost $10,000 a ticket could remain anonymous.
As one of its first acts, the Palaszczuk Government announced moves to change it back, as well as making the change retrospective, meaning political parties would have to publish all donations over $1000 from when the change was first made.
When the LNP changed the donation laws in mid 2014, Labor made a political point of continuing to declare donations over $1000.
But with Labor now looking to make everyone do the same thing, the Liberal National Party in a submission to the parliamentary committee reviewing the legislation, questioned whether the government had the legislative power to make the change, as well as highlighting what it calls the "inherent unfairness" in making the change retrospective.
"It is a matter of record that, on 20 November 2013, the Crown Solicitor advised the former Attorney-General, the Honourable Jarrod Bleijie, that the imposition of disclosure obligations at state level which are more onerous than corresponding federal obligations is likely to attract the operation of section 109 of the Commonwealth Constitution, so as to render the conflicting state legislation invalid," the submission reads.
"That independent advice provides a powerful rationale for maintaining uniformity between state and federal disclosure obligations.
"Acting contrary to that advice leaves open the possibility that the state may be left without an effective disclosure regime at all. The effect of section 109 of the Constitution would be to render the conflicting state legislation invalid."
New South Wales has a $1000 declaration threshold. Victoria is hitched to the federal limit.
The LNP argues staying with the Commonwealth regime makes sense, given there is no real reason to alter it.
It also maintains that making the laws retrospective "is unfair to those who made a decision to donate on the basis of the laws as they were at the time".
"A donor to a political party may well fear that the donation will bring with it the risk of retribution from the opposing political party," it submitted.
"The person making the decision to donate may well have taken into account the disclosure limit in deciding how much to donate. It would be fundamentally unfair to any such donor to undermine the decision they made.
"It must be kept in mind that, whatever criticisms of private donations to political parties, they are essential to our democratic system. Political parties would simply be unable to communicate their message without them. In that context, it is dangerous to create a situation where people are afraid to donate that they may subsequently be embarrassed through changes to the law."
Submissions closed on Friday. The committee will report back to parliament with its findings on May 1 ahead of the next sitting.
