Australia's electoral regulator has gone against its own published rules to waive through $550,000 in secretive “donations” the billionaire Lowy family made to the Liberal Party.

The Federal Liberal Party has been caught making false claims about the legality of foreign political “donations”, in an apparent attempt to cover-up illegal payments from Singaporean Government-owned Optus.

The Commissioner overseeing the Robodebt Royal Commission has attacked coverage of the inquiry by the traditional media as “patchy”, and stated the “importance of social media”.

The website of a “lobbying” firm tied to a brother of NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet  – who refused to give evidence to a parliamentary inquiry — has been erased from the internet.

Singaporean Government-owned telco giant Optus made $70,000 in political “donations” last year - despite payments from “foreign donors” being illegal.

One of three Liberal Party figures on the run from the law is hiding out in a remote forest that straddles the NSW-Victorian border where he has been spotted “in a mask”, an inquiry has heard.