Former Labor MP Ernest Wong accused of giving ‘false evidence’ over Chinatown dinner fundraiser
Former Upper House MP Ernest Wong has been accused of giving “false evidence” to ICAC. He denied telling someone that the head table at a Chinese Friends of Labor dinner, where Bill Shorten and Luke Foley were seated, had been sold for $100,000.
NSW
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Former NSW upper house MP Ernest Wong has been accused of giving “false evidence” at an ICAC hearing after repeatedly denying he told someone the head table at a Chinese Friends of Labor dinner, where Bill Shorten was seated, had been “taken for $100,000”.
Mr Wong, now a senior partner in the Ernest Jasper law firm was grilled today about the allegations that “straw donors” were used by the NSW Labor Party to bypass electoral laws.
He was patron of the fundraising group which put on the dinner attended by Mr Shorten and former NSW Labor leader Luke Foley, as well as exiled Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo on March 12, 2015.
During today’s hearing, Counsel Assisting Scott Robertson asked Mr Wong about seven times whether he told anyone that the head table at the dinner had been sold for the huge sum of money.
Mr Wong replied: “I deny that”.
He was then later forced to concede his answer was “wrong” after being shown an email he sent to a Mr Joseph Law. The email, written on March 3 just over a week before the dinner, said: “Sorry, but the head table has already been taken for $100,000”.
Asked whether he now accepted having read the email that he told at least one person the head table had been taken for $100,000, Mr Wong said: “Yes”.
“I didn’t tell a lie, I tried to search my memory … I didn’t remember there was an email as such,” he said.
Mr Wong then claimed that he had lied to Mr Law because he “didn’t want people to take the head table”.
Mr Robertson again accused him of giving “false” evidence and that he knew on March 3 that the head table had been taken.
Mr Wong denied this.
When pressed on what made him claim the head table had been sold for a specific figure of $100,000, Mr Wong said: “From the top of my head I suppose”.
Mr Robertson also accused Mr Wong of giving false evidence when he denied in a budget he wrote for the event that he was expecting $100,000 for the head table which had a price set at $10,000 a seat.
Mr Wong was shown a budget table he allegedly wrote anticipating $100,000 for the head table.
He argued that he was expecting $100,000 would be earned “from the whole event” and not just the head table.
Mr Wong was also shown an email titled “Chinese Friends of Labor Annual Charity Dinner”, where he was named as the chief person responsible for the head table following a meeting.
He claimed the meeting was in Cantonese and the translation may have been confused by Labor official Jonathan Yee, who wrote the email.
“You sold the table to Mr Huang Xiangmo for $100,000 and in exchange he and four other guests sat on the table with Mr Shorten, Mr Foley and you, correct?” Mr Robertson asked.
Mr Wong said: “No”.
Evidence was also shown to the ICAC that $12,200 went into another Chinese community account arising from the dinner in question and it was also possible that profits from the dinner went to other electorates such as Prospect.
ICAC Commissioner Peter Hall QC asked whether it would be “highly improper” if money raised in the name of the ALP was diverted to other organisations.
Mr Wong replied: “I agree with that”.
Mr Wong was also instructed to think carefully about the evidence he had provided over the weekend.
He will appear again before the inquiry on Monday.
Axed NSW ALP party leader Kaila Murnain previously gave evidence Mr Wong told her a year after the dinner that Huang, a property developer, was in fact behind a $100,000 cash donation in an Aldi bag attributed to other diners at the function.
Property developers are banned from donating in NSW.
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It has been reported that ASIO confidentially warned major political parties and their leaders in 2015 and 2016 that Huang’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party could mean his donations were a vehicle to push Beijing’s aims.
ICAC counsel assisting Scott Robertson said earlier this week that one of the key questions being pursued by the corruption inquiry was whether there was evidence Mr Wong engaged in any “corrupt conduct” as a public official.
A former Burwood mayor, Mr Wong was parachuted into the NSW State Parliament in 2013 after Eric Roozendaal left to take up a job with Huang’s YuHu Group.
Mr Wong was not returned at the state election this year.
Also today, ALP staffer Kenrick Cheah is also expected to be called again to the witness box.