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Timeline NSW Labor $100K cash scandal

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Every day while ICAC is holding hearings there are fresh revelations in the NSW Labor $100,000 cash in ALDI bag scandal so I thought setting out a timeline helps me understand. Corrections/additions welcome.

In 2013 rising Labor star Ms Kaila Murnain was appointed Assistant General Secretary of NSW Labor.
21August2013, a joint sitting of the Parliament of New South Wales appointed Sam Dastyari (a previous close associate of Eddie Obeid) to the Senate seat vacated by Matt Thistlethwaite, who had resigned to contest a House of Representatives seat at the 2013 federal election.
28Mar2015 there was a NSW State election
April 2015 We are told the ALDI bag with $100,000 cash was delivered to the Sussex Street headquarters of NSW Labor by Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo in April 2015. Mr Huang gave the money to former party boss Jamie Clements who then gave it to Mr Cheah to count. Mr Cheah said he did not have time to think about why there was so much cash in the bag when he was counting it because he was very busy, but he agreed it was “unusual”. He said Labor general secretary Kaila Murnain asked him what was in the bag but he could not remember if he told her the exact amount of money it contained.
“I definitely would have said something like ‘a lot of money’,” he told the ICAC.
Mr Cheah said he took the money home with him because there was no safe at party headquarters and the banks were closed. He said Ms Murnain told him to be mindful of his safety as he was leaving work.
Ed note: This $100K cash was an illegal donation on two fronts.
1 – Property developers are not allowed to donate to political parties under NSW law.
2 – under NSW law cash donations can not exceed ~$5,000 – so the $100K would have to be split in “fives” and candidates found who would lend their names to giving away these funds.
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6Sep2016 Senator Sam Dastyari resigned as Manager of Opposition Business and Consumer Affairs Spokesman after reports emerged that he had asked a donor with links to the Chinese Communist Party to pay a travel bill.
16Sep16 Ms Murnain said former MP Ernest Wong told her about an alleged donation by Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo and she immediately called Mr Dastyari for advice. KM says they met outside NSW Parliament but SD says he picked her up in his car in Elizabeth St and they drove around talking.
Ed note: What Ernest Wong was telling Kaila Murnain was that he was hearing from people who were getting letters from the Electoral Commission/ATO asking about their ~$5,000 donation to NSW Labor – and these people needed help.
Ms Murnain said Labor lawyer Ian Robertson told her to “forget” what she had been told about the donations and take no action.
Ms Murnain said she and Mr Dastyari were close friends at the time but their relationship had since dissolved.
Post Sept2016 We have a lengthy period here when all in the know kept stuumm.
25Jan18 Senator Dastyari formally submitted his resignation from the Senate.
Another 18 months passed when all in the know kept stuumm. Tragically a person committed suicide in June 2018 leaving a note referring to being saddled with one of these dodgy ~$5,000 donations. Horrific.
26August2019 ICAC starts public hearings on the 2015 $100K cash donation to NSW Labor and each day the proverbial variously hits the fan.

10 thoughts on “Timeline NSW Labor $100K cash scandal”

  1. So ICAC has been investigating these amazing scandals for years. Pity they could not have got a wriggle on and started public hearings before 18th May last so NSW people could have been better informed when they voted in the Fed election.

  2. Dastayi made a show for the press of arriving at the ICAC hearing on a share bike.

    www.9news.com.au/national/sam-dastyari-arrives-at-icac-hearing-on-share-bike/1e26072e-8dc8-420b-82fa-9b883fc66d2a

    Oddly enought, dockless share bikes are a Chinese invention:

    “…the real selling point for these investors is gaining access to millions of tech-savvy customers.

    Companies like Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, whose financial affiliate Ant Financial is an Ofo investor, see the opportunity to deliver other products and services such as payment apps. They’re also keen to access valuable data on users’ commuting habits and rental history, says Zhou Wei, founder of China Creation Ventures.Another use can be for gaining a better picture of a person’s credit history.

    …It is up to the Internet companies to develop their own services — like Ant Financial’s Sesame Credit — often with unconventional data sources such as online shopping habits and social media behavior.

    “These bike services are of high strategic importance to Alibaba and Tencent,” Zhou said, “It is an indispensable way to get data on frequent users.”

    www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/2017/06/20/worth-1-billion-but-whats-really-driving-chinas-bike-sharing-boom/#162fec3d427e

  4. I have just watched a full hour of ABC News24 TV and the NSW Labor donations scandal never got a syllable mention. Some subjects covered (many lengthy) were Tamil family – East Timor – Sydney house fire – Sydney water main burst – GBR lengthy blah blah climate stop use of coal – macular degeneration – cyclone nearing Florida – menopause lengthy blah blah – marine resources Groote Island – WA agriculture minus chemicals – youth suicide – young guy somewhere mows lawns – Hong Kong – how streaming is affecting pop music – Brexit – lower standards in STEM subjects.
    So for over 4 years dozens of people plus ICAC kept this NSW Labor law breaking concealed from the people of NSW. Little doubt in my mind the 18May Fed election was held under false pretences in NSW and should be cancelled and rerun.

  5. Dastyari arriving on a Lime bicycle, wobbling precariously along the footpath (likely started just 20m away from the cameras), with a pimple helmet on his pointed head, is just his Mr Bean persona.

    His aim is to soften any detrimental public fallout with pretend self-deprication.

    Yes, Waz, this episode of chicanery is long-running and hidden until now that both Fed and State elections are over for this cycle. I don’t feel outrage as I am of the view that it is quite routine – for the ALP, Libs and Greens. I will likely be labelled cynical for this view, but who are the real cynics here ? It is really noticeable that all three organisations and the MSM are deathly quiet on the obvious question: what did the real, the actual, donor expect in return ?

    It seems the reason this blew up is that the ersatz “donors” of $5k each have been pinged by both the ATO and the Electoral Commission when they claimed tax deductions. Since false declarations may attract goal sentences, these little people panicked. In my view, this shows a hurried, careless response by Sussex Street when the need suddenly arose – the cash wasn’t of sufficient import to figure out a real alibi.

  6. I see on ABC News24 TV today(Sunday) they have Plibersek(of the Labor Left!!) wheeled out & coached to say a few things “fishing in troubled waters”. One of her ideas was to lower the limit at which donations have to be named to $1,000. That would swamp the donation lists such that most would never bother wading through them. Her other idea was to get the Electoral Commissions to update their political donations lists quicker – closer to real time. Well that sounds OK but would cost big in public servants.
    I note the comments re Sam Dastyari and agree that whether he intended or not his bike antics could resemble a form of “running interference”.
    One major stunning question is flashing big for me and that is –
    after the Apr2015 $100K cash in ALDI bag disaster that Kaila Murnain was at least tainted by.
    What Labor “power brokers” backed her and got her voted in as General Secretary in Feb2016?
    And what did they know about Apr2015?
    Too many questions and the range of answers is too mind blowing.
    All of this should have leaked and erupted before the 2Jul2016 Fed election.
    To think it was kept secret for another 3 years.
    I realise that once ICAC starts talking to witnesses they sign confidentiality stuff that would have consequences if broken.

  7. Not just the 18th May Fed Election held under false pretences. Most of the crimes committed in these scandalous events were way before the 2nd July 2016 Fed Election too. That means our last two Fed Elections have been tainted/warped in favour of Labor in our largest State. Has anything like this ever happened in our history?

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