Parakeelia is registered to the same inner-Canberra office building as the Liberals. The company's directors include the Liberal Party's federal director, Tony Nutt, and president, Richard Alston. It is registered with authorities as being associated with the party. Liberal Party federal director Tony Nutt. Credit:Jessica Hromas Last financial year, Parakeelia transferred $500,000 to the federal Liberal division, making it the party's second-biggest single source of funds. The year before it came in fourth with $400,000; before that $200,000. But the Liberals would not say how much of the company's revenue began as taxpayer funding. Some party figures question whether the party is profiting from public funding.

"What are the costs to them from running the software?," asked one former Liberal MP. "You'd have to say minimal. Our contributions per MP are very small, so we never really could know if they were turning a buck or not." Former Fairfax Media chairman Ron Walker believes TPG will increase its $2.76 billion bid for Fairfax Media. Credit:Wayne Taylor But a Liberal spokesman said, late on Wednesday, that money transferred from its software provider was not donations but "payments are for services provided through the party, such as technology upgrades". Parakeelia's operations were "entirely lawful", the spokesman said, and it had to cover costs such as staffing, equipment and technology upgrades. Illustration: Ron Tandberg

The last time this information about Parakeelia's income was disclosed, a decade ago, half of Parakeelia's revenues came from MP offices. The balance was mostly money from the Liberal Party machine. The software logs information about an MP's constituents. Every time a voter calls an office, or writes a letter to the local paper, electorate staff make a note about any information gleaned about their political views. Staff also proactively research community groups and businesses and add it to the files. "Let's say John Smith calls about superannuation," says one Liberal staffer. "We can see everything about him: his age, profession, marital status, which way he votes. "The idea is to not waste time speaking to people who lean one way or the other. You want to focus on the swingers". That the monitoring work is done by staff already paid by MPs raises questions about how much of the taxpayer-funded $2500 annual fee is profit.

Parakeelia's 98 per cent shareholder, businessman and former Liberal treasurer Ron Walker, said he was unaware he was still associated with the company and referred questions back to the Liberals. Parakeelia's revenues now regularly nudge or exceed $1 million a year, an amount that often includes cash injections from Liberal HQ, which sent $250,000 in 2013-14 but none last year. The company is listed as an "associated entity" with the Liberal Party by the Australian Electoral Commission. But most of its income falls below the $12,000 threshold which requires disclosure, masking MPs' contributions. The last year these smaller donations were disclosed, 2006, nearly half of its revenue came from federal parliamentarians' offices. The balance came mostly from cash transfers from other Liberal divisions, and small contributions from New Zealand's Parliament. State parliaments also pay to use its services but many have refused to provide figures to Fairfax Media about use of individual MP allowances.