The organisation made the admission to a Senate committee investigating the political influence of donations, headed up by Greens senator and party leader Richard Di Natale.

The MCA’s admission stands in stark contrast with other lobby groups, who said they made donations to support democracy.

“The MCA makes the political contributions detailed above because they provide additional opportunities for the MCA to meet with members of parliament,” MCA said in it’s response to the Senate committee.

“The MCA uses these opportunities to update members of parliament about conditions in the Australian minerals industry and the policy priorities of the MCA.”

The lobby group declared donations of more than $33,000 in 2015-16 and more than $57,000 in 2016-17 with the Australian Electoral Committee, which went to both sides of politics. The majority in both years went to the Liberal or National parties.

“Our democracy is broken when a major mining lobby group feels comfortable publicly saying they pay for access to the old parties without fear of any consequences,” Senator Di Natale said.