Australian Hotels Association

The Australian Hotels Association (AHA) is the leading indsutry group for the hotel and hospitality indsutry. It is also a leading advocate for tourism and accommodation issues with Government, Opposition, media and industry.

The AHA represents over 8500 pub-style and 3, 4 and 5 Star accommodation hotels, taverns bars and resorts throughout Australia. The Australian Hotels Association (AHA) is an employer advocacy and lobby group representing hoteliers around Australia. The AHA is a federation of state based hotels associations. There are 8 state based Hotel Associations, one in each state or territory. These state associations fund and support the AHA national body through a National Board made up of delegates from the states and territory's. Presidents of each branch meet regularly to discuss strategic and executive matters, as the National Executive. [cite web |title=About the AHA |publisher=Australian Hotels Association |url=http://www.aha.org.au/about.html |accessdate=2007-08-23]

The NSW AHA and Political Donations

The AHA is considered one of the most influential lobby groups in Australian, [cite news |title=Victory drinks for Labor branch on hotel association |publisher=The Age |author=Richard Baker |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/investigations/victory-drinks-for-labor-branch-on-hotel-association/2007/05/16/1178995236262.html |date=2007-05-17 |accessdate=2007-08-23] and the AHA NSW Branch provides considerable financial support to the Australian Labor Party. Between 1998 and 2006, the AHA NSW Branch contributed over AU$700,000 to the NSW branch of the ALP. [cite news |title=And the winner is ... Melbourne |publisher=Sydney Morning Herald |author=Miranda Divine |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/de-niro-snubs-sydney-for-melbourne/2007/08/15/1186857591568.html?page=fullpage |date=2007-08-16 |accessdate=2008-08-23]

On the 24th of April the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the AHA had frozen all political donations. The association's new president, Scott Leach, and his executive announced the decision to freeze the donations 2 weeks after his election as the new president. Mr Leach said the SMH article "the move was part of a review of how the association operated. Political donations made by the AHA are under review - we've pressed the pause button," he said "We fully support the Premier's changes.". The NSW Premier is currently considering the prospect of banning all donations to political parties. [ Andrew Clennell State Political Editor "Pubs turn off the political donations tap" [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/pubs-turn-off-the-political-donations-tap/2008/04/24/1208743154202.html] 2008-04-24 ]

External links

* [http://www.aha.org.au The Australian Hotels Association]
* [http://www.ahawa.asn.au The Australian Hotels Association (WA)]

References