Queensland's corruption watchdog is set to launch a new probe into political donations.
Crime and Misconduct Commission chairman Robert Needham says he's concerned about the way in which the major political parties offer meetings with ministers and opposition frontbenchers for money.
Both the Queensland Liberal National Party and Labor state conferences this year offered "corporate observers" programmes, charging A$3300 and A$4400 ($4189.41 and $5585.88) respectively, featuring a number of opportunities to meet-and-greet decision makers.
Mr Needham told ABC Radio today the CMC would soon launch a review of political donations.
He said there was "no doubt" companies and unions expected something in return for donations, especially to governing parties.
"Insofar as political donations go it's always a grey area," Mr Needham said.
"If you have a company donating A$50,000 or A$100,000 to a political party there's no doubt that it means that at some stage in the future they'll expect to be able to call on the government, to be able to speak to the minister when they need to ... perhaps it could be even worse than that."
Mr Needham said the corporate observers program needed specific scrutiny.
"It might be perfectly okay but what we might have to do ... is find out exactly how it is done," he said.
"If it's done with all proper safeguards around it might be okay, but even so it's perhaps not the best in our system of democracy if it means you can get better access to a minister if you can pay for it."
He said the CMC was close to launching its review.
- AAP
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