by Ganesh Sahathevan
The Daily Telegraph quoting former NSW Supreme Court judge, NSW Labor Attorney General ,and current Chief Commissioner of the NSW ICAC John Hatzistergos has reported:
A former NSW Labor attorney-general says political parties are circumventing NSW’s strict rules on donations by funnelling prohibited cash through federal campaign accounts.
A former NSW Labor attorney-general says political parties are circumventing NSW’s strict rules on donations by funnelling prohibited cash through federal campaign accounts.
Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) chief commissioner John Hatzistergos has called for uniform donation rules across the country to avoid parties skirting the rules, a practice that was highlighted during a 2019 inquiry into NSW Labor banking Aldi bags full of cash from a prohibited Chinese donor.
He noted that in evidence to ICAC’s investigation into the Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinners, former NSW Labor secretary Sam Dastyari said donations banned at a state level could be banked in federal accounts.
However, he said politicians could also be improperly influenced without any money changing hands.
“They (politicians) have to use their position in the public interest and we make that point clearly to them all the time,” he said. “It’s not their electoral interests, it’s not the interests of their friends or their donors or anyone else.” Mr Hatzistergos also reiterated ICAC’s call for political parties to be subject to certain “governance” standards in order to get funding for administrative purposes.(Time to close loophole on political donations
EXCLUSIVE JAMES O’DOHERTY STATE POLITICAL EDITOR,21 November 2023
Daily Telegraph)
It is left to be seen if Hatzistergos will pursue or ignore the matter of the NSW LPAB's dealings with the Communist Party China linked donor Zhu Minshen and his Top Group.Readers will recall that his predecessor and fellow judge of the NSW Supreme Court Peter Hall refused to do so despite the evidence before him.