Charity that campaigned for PM’s handpicked candidate received $50k grant

A charity that completed 32 hours of phone banking for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s handpicked candidate for the Sydney seat of Barton during her state election campaign was subsequently nominated by the political hopeful for a $50,000 grant.

Emails provided under a parliamentary call for papers show the Premier’s Department has sought additional information from Ashvini Ambihaipahar, who ran as the party’s candidate in the Liberal-held seat of Oatley in Sydney’s south, regarding a potential conflict of interest.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the new Labor candidate for Barton, Ashvini Ambihaipahar.Credit: AAPIMAGE

The Minns government has come under fire over its controversial Local Small Commitments Allocation (LSCA) program, which was rolled out ahead of the 2023 state election. The scheme provided every Labor MP and candidate in each of the state’s 93 electorates with $400,000 to nominate projects for funding.

The Herald has previously detailed a number of Labor MPs and candidates who awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to organisations they were personally involved with. The scheme is now subject to a compliance audit by the auditor-general and an upper house parliamentary inquiry.

A member of Labor’s left faction, Ambihaipahar was Albanese’s captain’s pick to replace former Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney for the safe Sydney seat.

Her selection caused consternation within the party, with senior Sussex Street figures aggrieved by the intervention.

Eight months after the state election, Ambihaipahar faced questions over her nomination of Asian Women at Work for funding under the LSCA program.

In response to several questions from the Premier’s Department about her conflict-of-interest declaration, Ambihaipahar said members of the charity “phone-banked the Chinese community based in the seat of Oatley” for “approximately four hours per day” on February 7 to 9 and February 14 to 16 in 2023, and it was also “possible” they did this on two days in March 2023.

The hours represent eight days, or 32 hours, of work. Ambihaipahar did not specify how many people from the group helped with her campaign, but the work was on a volunteer basis.

Ambihaipahar added that the group “may have been invited to [a] campaign launch but did not attend”.

Asian Women at Work’s LSCA funding was approved on October 9, 2024.

The $50,000 went to English and computer classes, programs to support migrant women in low-paid and precarious employment, and hobby classes for women who experienced domestic and family violence, government documents record.

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns and then Oatley candidate Ash Ambihaipahar have a democracy sausage ahead of the 2023 election.Credit: Nikki Short

The funding was flagged by departmental probity advisers as a moderate probity risk in late November 2023, but the comments explaining why were redacted by the state government in documents released under freedom-of-information laws.

In response to questions from the Herald, Ambihaipahar said: “The guidelines for the LSCA grant program are very strict, and I complied with all relevant disclosure requirements overseen by the local small commitments program office.

“The emails discussing this are evidence that the system is robust. I am disgusted the Liberal Party is attacking Asian Women at Work, and if they are suggesting this organisation is not worthy of funding, they should explain why.”

In a statement, Special Minister of State John Graham said: “There is a conflict of interest process in place for the program. This organisation was eligible for funding as it met the grant criteria set out in the guidelines.”

A Georges River councillor and St Vincent de Paul Society NSW director, Ambihaipahar came within a whisker of defeating longstanding MP Mark Coure in the Liberal-held seat of Oatley at the 2023 state election, losing by 754 votes despite a 6 per cent two-party-preferred swing.

Shadow minister of state Chris Rath called on Ambihaipahar to “explain herself” before the state parliamentary inquiry.

“Did she promise taxpayers’ money in exchange for campaign support? It just stinks of pork barrelling and must be called out,” he said.

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