Senior Labor figures have joined a call by MP Anthony Byrne for a parliamentary inquiry into foreign influence after reports the NSW branch of the party received at least $120,000 in donations from companies with links to a Chinese-born businessman on its Senate ticket.
Fairfax Media and the Australian reported that “Simon” Shuo Zhou, a gold trader who ran for Labor as a Senate candidate in the 2016 election, quit a part-time job at the NSW Labor headquarters this week after the party was questioned about his alleged link to a tax scam involving gold dealers.
In the reports Byrne called for an inquiry by the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, commenting that it “has to be done, even if it involves our own side”.
On Wednesday the former treasurer Wayne Swan and the frontbench MP Ed Husic added their support to the call for an inquiry.
Labor and the government focused on foreign donations in question time, when the treasurer, Scott Morrison, targeted the opposition’s links to Zhou. He said “gold-plated fraud” – referring to tax evasion scams in precious metals he said had cost taxpayers $860m – had “wormed its way into the Australian Labor party”.
At a doorstop in Queanbeyan the party leader, Bill Shorten, said he didn’t know “the ins and the outs of the matter”. He referred questions on Zhou to NSW Labor and reiterated his call last week for a bipartisan reference to the committee.
On Wednesday, the Australian newspaper reported that four companies run by or linked to Zhou donated at least $120,000 to the NSW ALP on 15 and 16 May 2016, while Fairfax reported the total was $140,000.
Guardian Australia has confirmed the $120,000 total in four donations through the NSW ALP’s disclosure to the Australian Electoral Commission and those of each donor:
- AGSX Pty Ltd $26,000
- AUGS Markets Pty Ltd $30,00
- Gold and Silver Exchange Sydney Pty Ltd $29,000
- AGSX Investables Group Pty Ltd $35,000
Zhou, given the unwinnable seventh spot on Labor’s NSW Senate ticket at the 2016 election, has been named in an administrative appeals tribunal case as being connected to a company involved in a $143m gold-trading scandal.
The Australian reported that the scandal resulted in the Australian Taxation Office seeking $20m in unpaid taxes and penalties, including a $2.5m bill from Zhou’s company Australian Coin Exchange before it collapsed this year.
Asked about Byrne’s call for an inquiry on Wednesday, Husic, the shadow employment services minister, said he “absolutely” supported it.
“I think it’s important that people have confidence in the system,” he said. “If there are questions that are being asked, get them answered.”
Swan also said he was in favour of a reference for an inquiry on foreign donations.
“The Liberal party once again won’t face up to facts here and does not favour the inquiry, once again sticking its head in the sand,” he said.
Last week Four Corners alleged that Senator Sam Dastyari contradicted Labor party policy on the South China Sea a day after influential Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo threatened to withdraw a promised $400,000 donation to the party.
On Wednesday Shorten said he had written to Turnbull, following the Four Corners story last week, to call for the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security “to have a look at how we can better safeguard against foreign interference in elections and our electoral process”.
In question time, Shorten asked why the government did not support a Labor bill to ban foreign donations, prompting the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to respond that one could “drive a truck through” the loopholes in Labor’s proposal.
The government intends to introduce a bill in the spring parliamentary sitting to ban foreign donations not just to political parties but also to third-party activist groups, such as GetUp.
Turnbull accused Dastyari of “a disgraceful performance of cash for comment and clear policy switch” on the South China Sea, and questioned why Shorten had stood him down for only six months before he returned as deputy Senate whip.
Morrison noted that Labor had recruited Zhou to run for the Senate, jibing that the political aspirant “wanted to be a gold member of the Australian parliament”.
“At the end of the day, the real question for the leader of the opposition is this: will the Labor party set aside that $140,000 in a trust account so it can be accessed by the Australian Taxation Office, as a result of their investigations into this gold fraud?”
Labor targeted foreign minister, Julie Bishop, asking if she was aware one of the Liberal party’s largest donors, Chinese mining magnate Sally Zou, reportedly set up a company called “Julie Bishop Glorious Foundation”.
Bishop replied that all donations to the Liberal party were declared to the AEC and until the media raised it with her a week ago, she was not aware of the foundation.
Guardian Australia approached the ATO, NSW Labor party, Dastyari and executives of each of the four companies named as NSW Labor donors for comment.
