Menzies Research Centre
Where the money comes from2024-25 return
Menzies Research Centre, source by source. Each named payer is on the left; the kind of money it is sits in the middle; the vehicle on the right.
The Liberal Party’s research institute, funded by the same foundation that funds the party. Cormack gave $350,000 of its $1.54m in receipts and is the largest single line; three further foundations gave $350,000 between them. A $313,781 Department of Finance grant is the second-largest line and is not political money. It itemises $1.23m of $1.54m, the best of any vehicle here.
- Itemised and named
- Not itemised, or named and unverifiable
- Public funding
Menzies Research Centre, source by source. Each named payer is on the left; the kind of money it is sits in the middle; the vehicle on the right.
The Liberal Party’s research institute, funded by the same foundation that funds the party. Cormack gave $350,000 of its $1.54m in receipts and is the largest single line; three further foundations gave $350,000 between them. A $313,781 Department of Finance grant is the second-largest line and is not political money. It itemises $1.23m of $1.54m, the best of any vehicle here.
- Itemised and named
- Not itemised, or named and unverifiable
- Public funding
What it is
The Liberal Party’s research institute, and an associated entity on the federal register: it files its own return and its parties are recorded as the Liberal Party of Australia and its divisions AEC . It produces policy research rather than advertising, and it is the party’s main in-house think tank.
Where the money comes from
Its 2024-25 return reports $1,540,242 of receipts and $1,517,007 of payments AEC . It itemises $1,233,781 of receipts from nine payers. Cormack Foundation gave $350,000, the Department of Finance $313,781, the Howarth Foundation $200,000, and Jenny McCarthy and the McLellan Foundation $100,000 each AEC .
The pattern
Cormack has funded it most years since the mid-2000s — $40,000 in 2007-08, $150,000 in 2011-12, $330,000 in 2018-19, $350,000 in both 2023-24 and 2024-25 AEC . That is the same foundation that pays the Victorian division $4.7m a year, routing through a research institute as well as a party. The Department of Finance money is not political: it is a grant, and it is the second-largest line in the return.
In Victoria
The research records no Victorian campaign, scorecard or endorsement by it. Its Victorian relevance is the money: it is where part of the Liberal-aligned foundation pool lands.
Getting involved
It publishes research and runs events; the research records no volunteering or donation pathway.