The New South Wales Labor party will quarantine $100,000 in donations at the centre of a corruption probe into the party’s fundraising prior to the last state election.
On Monday the ABC reported details of an Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation into donations received by the party before the 2015 state election.
It follows Icac raids on Labor’s Sussex Street headquarters in December which Guardian Australia reported at the time were understood to relate to a Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner held before the 2015 election.
The ABC reported the fundraiser, attended by the federal opposition leader, Bill Shorten, was at the centre of an Icac investigation into whether 20 small donations totalling $100,000 were actually a single donation made by another unidentified person and covered up via so-called straw donors.
Responding to the reports, the NSW Labor leader, Michael Daley, said he had instructed the party to transfer $100,000 to the NSW electoral commission “until the Icac investigation into political donations is concluded”.
In a statement, Daley’s office said he had first learned of the allegations at the centre of the probe following the raid. His office said he “has had no prior knowledge of matters raised today in ABC reports on a dinner held in 2015”.
“I’ve spoken to the secretary of the Labor party today and I’ve issued her a very simple direction: work with the electoral commission and send them $100,000 to quarantine,” Daley said on Monday.
“I don’t know if there’s any tainted money in those donations but if there is I don’t want a bar of it. We won’t be using any of it in the campaign.”
The investigation comes at a difficult time for NSW Labor. Less than two months out from the next state election, the Coalition government last week announced a range of integrity measures which appear aimed at reminding voters of the corruption that plagued the previous NSW Labor government and led to the former MP Eddie Obeid being sent to jail in 2016.
Last week the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced a range of new anti-corruption measures, including a new specialist unit attached to the Department of Public Prosecutions charged with prosecuting public sector corruption.
She also announced new travel disclosure rules for MPs and lobbyists representing foreign states or companies.
She seized on the ABC report on Monday, describing it as “very concerning”.
“Unfortunately many people must be shaking their heads thinking ‘nothing much has changed in the Labor party’,” she said.
