SA Best Leader Nick Xenophon says potential $1.2m donation to the Liberals shows stricter donations laws are needed

CHINESE mining magnate Sally Zou’s suggestion that she was donating $1.2 million to the Liberal Party has prompted calls for upper limits on political donations.

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CHINESE mining magnate Sally Zou’s suggestion that she was donating $1.2 million to the Liberal Party has prompted calls for upper limits on political donations.

SA Best leader Nick Xenophon said changes should be considered when MPs return to Parliament after voting day on March 17.

A fortnight from election day, Ms Zou (right) posted a mysterious tweet featuring an image of a cheque made out to the South Australian Liberal Party for $1,212,018.

It appears the tweet, and others sent from her account, have since been deleted. The Liberal Party says it has not received a donation of that sum from Ms Zou.

The donation, if made, would be lawful, but Mr Xenophon said the Adelaide-based businesswoman “has got more money than sense if she wants to give over $1 million to one political party”.

SA Liberals Leader Steven Marshall.

SA Best Leader Nick Zenophon

He did not put forward a specific limit for future donations but said anything more than $500,000 could potentially exert “a great degree of political influence”.

“This really highlights the need after the election to have some further reform of political funding in our state so that those large donations – whether they’re from big business or big unions – really shouldn’t be allowed,” Mr Xenophon said. “It may be transparent (to tweet), but it raises questions about how much is too much.”

He said the largest donation to SA Best he could recall was about $120,000, for a federal campaign.

The image tweeted by Ms Zou on Friday was accompanied by a cryptic statement: “This is a life-journey wandering the Man, who is met a beautiful accident ... Perhaps is casual transmigration, and this was born, wish you LIBERALS had enough.”

Sally Zou’s tweet of the $1.2million cheque for the Liberals. Picture: Twitter @sally_ausgold

It featured a picture of a Commonwealth Bank cheque, with the day and month of the date blurred, as well as Ms Zou’s signature.

Liberal leader Steven Marshall said he had not spoken to Ms Zou following the tweet but conceded it was “very strange”.

“We’ve received no such cheque,” Mr Marshall said. “I really can’t explain the tweet. It’s quite a mystery.”

He said he had met Ms Zou “recently ... certainly in the last six months”, but there had been no indication from her that such a large amount of money would be forthcoming.

Labor Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said Ms Zou’s tweet “raises a lot of questions”.

“What is she seeking to do?” he said. “She doesn’t have any factories in SA, she doesn’t have any mines in SA. Is it (about) in frastructure, is it privatisation, is it mining leases … is it China?”

Liberal Party of Australia state director Sascha Meldrum said the “party has not received the donation” from Ms Zou and adhered to laws requiring donations of more than $5191 to be disclosed publicly within seven days.