LNP loses Supreme Court donations fight

A Queensland court has found the Liberal National Party should have immediately disclosed donations it did not want to make public last year.

Political parties are required under state law to reveal money and gifts amounting to $1000 or more, but the LNP had argued only the Commonwealth threshold of $13,500 should apply to contributions to federal candidates.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland took the party to court after it held off from disclosing $100,000 worth of donations.

Brisbane Supreme Court Justice David Jackson on Thursday ruled there was no inconsistency between state and federal laws, as the LNP had argued, meaning it must divulge all donations above $1000.

Attorney General Yvette D'Ath seized on the decision, demanding the party retrospectively disclose the funds, months after former LNP leader Tim Nicholls said it had.

"Today's ruling - at taxpayers' expense - sends a clear message that time is up for the LNP. They need to come clean," she said in a statement.

Hours later Ms D'Ath backtracked, saying that while it had met its legal obligations, the party must also release a breakdown of the donors behind the $100,000 sum.

She also called on new Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington to state her support for the threshold and guarantee all donations had been disclosed.

Her remarks came after Tourism Minister Kate Jones declared the issue a test of Ms Frecklington's leadership, a challenge she brushed aside.

The responsibility of disclosures, Ms Frecklington said, rested with party officials.

"That is a big call that Kate Jones is saying, that my leadership has to do with a Supreme Court judge," she added.

Campbell Newman's LNP government lifted the state disclosure threshold to match the federal one during its term in power, but Labor swiftly reversed the move after taking office in 2015.