Election watchdog investigates premier’s alleged links to decade-old donations scandal

The NSW Electoral Commission has reopened an investigation into a decade-old scandal after a former Labor official alleged Premier Chris Minns was involved in evading donations laws over cash received at a Hurstville fundraiser before the 2015 election.

The Sydney Morning Herald can reveal the commission is re-investigating a plan to use straw donors to hide the “true identity” of prohibited donors to NSW Labor. Minns has denied any wrongdoing.

At the same time, an upper house committee separately probing the donations will seek to force the commission to answer questions at a hearing. It would mark the first public evidence in what has until now been a largely secret inquiry.

Multiple sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential probe told the Herald the commission has been conducting interviews about the donations, made at a Labor Party fundraiser for Minns at the Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant in Hurstville in 2014. The interviews follow a separate audit of Minns’ campaign finances in 2016.

The Herald is not suggesting the existence of an investigation indicates any wrongdoing by Minns or any other Labor figure, only that the commission has been examining the allegations.

It comes after a former member of Labor’s head office, David Latham, last year alleged Minns asked him how to bank thousands of dollars in undeclared cash donations he said were handed over at the fundraiser on September 12, 2014.

The premier vehemently denied the conversation took place, or any wrongdoing, when the allegation was made.

He revealed the NSW Electoral Commission had already looked into the matter, and accused the committee members of maliciously “drip feeding” information for “political attacks”.

“I was never investigated by ICAC, wasn’t aware of the circumstances relating to those false donors to the NSW Labor Party in 2015 or the Kogarah campaign, and we fully and completely complied with their investigation of that campaign years ago,” he said.

In a statement on Wednesday, a spokeswoman from his office said the premier had been “open and completely emphatic in rejecting any wrongdoing”.

But the Electoral Commission has made new inquiries over the donations since they were raised in parliament by Greens MP Abigail Boyd and independent Mark Latham last year.

The nine-page affidavit from David Latham, an ALP state organiser between 2013 and 2016 and no relation to the MP, relates to an Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation into the use of straw donors to hide the “true identity” of prohibited donors to NSW Labor. The affidavit has been submitted to the parliamentary committee that is separately probing donations in Minns’ seat of Kogarah before the 2015 election.

The allegations were first raised during the ICAC’s 2019 probe into the $100,000 illegally donated to the NSW Labor Party by property developer Huang Xiangmo.

The inquiry’s public hearings heard former Labor MP Ernest Wong and Labor figure Jonathan Yee – who were both subject to adverse findings in relation to the broader investigation – were involved in concealing the source of about $10,000 in donations to Minns’ campaign.

However, the Minns fundraiser was not pursued by the corruption watchdog. Scott Robertson, the counsel assisting the ICAC, said at the time that his questions were not targeted at Minns’ conduct, but to “shed light on the conduct” of Wong, Yee and others.

In a letter to the committee in February this year, Paul Lakatos SC, a commissioner at the ICAC, said after reviewing the material the watchdog had decided not to investigate.

Lakatos noted the commission only had jurisdiction to investigate “conduct that may involve possible criminal offences under electoral funding legislation” if it was referred by the Electoral Commission.

“Absent any such referral, the commission’s jurisdiction is confined to corrupt conduct as that term is defined in the ICAC Act,” he wrote.

However, in his affidavit, obtained by the Herald, David Latham alleged he received a call from Minns “after this fundraising event in late 2014” in which he claimed Minns said: “I have an issue. We received a bunch of cash and the team did not collect forms or receipt it properly.”

“Chris Minns asked me words to the effect of, ‘Do you know how we might be able to get the money in?’” Latham wrote in his affidavit.

Latham said he suggested Minns ask NSW Labor’s then-executive officer and now party secretary Dominic Ofner. He alleged that Minns replied he would instead speak to Jamie Clements, Labor’s then-general secretary and the premier’s best friend.

Despite declarations listing it as raising less than $6000 from 10 donors – which took place when Minns was seeking to enter parliament – a Chinese-language newspaper at the time reported the attendance at the event was much larger. The article, first reported by the ABC, states about 200 people were at the event.

It includes a photograph of Minns flanked by dignitaries, including his long-time factional ally Chris Bowen, his predecessor in the seat of Kogarah and long-time political ally Cherie Burton, and Wong.

Minns has previously said he did not recall the specific fundraiser.

The parliamentary committee investigating the donations – which is led by Boyd and includes Mark Latham, a long-time Minns adversary – referred the affidavit to both the ICAC and the Electoral Commission.

The committee on Wednesday released correspondence with the commission in which it continued to say it would not comment on the outcome of any previous investigation. The commission told the Herald it would also not comment on whether it was conducting a renewed investigation.

In a statement, the premier’s spokeswoman linked the Electoral Commission’s investigation to Mark Latham’s criticisms of the agency.

“Is this really surprising given all the times Mark Latham has publicly suggested the NSW Electoral Commission is corrupt, part of a conspiracy and a protection racket?” she said.

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