ICAC: Former NSW Labor boss Jamie Clement surrenders phone
Former Labor chief Jamie Clements has handed over his phone to the ICAC so investigators can search for messages with former MP Ernest Wong as it continues to investigate an alleged $100,000 donation from a Chinese billionaire.
NSW
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The corruption watchdog will mine the phone of a previous NSW Labor chief for messages with a former MP as it continues to investigate allegations a billionaire handed the party $100,000 in a cash-stuffed ALDI bag.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption also heard all alleged surviving "straw donors" now say that same former MP, Ernest Wong, told them what to say to authorities.
The party's former secretary Jamie Clements surrendered his phone to the ICAC last week after divulging it contained communications between himself and Mr Wong that may be "relevant" to the inquiry.
The commission is trying to figure out if exiled Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo is the source of $100,000 cash which was allegedly delivered to Mr Clements in an ALDI bag in April 2015.
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Mr Clements denies he was given a bag of cash.
The drop off allegedly happened some weeks after a Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner at the Emperor's Garden restaurant in Chinatown.
Mr Huang denies allegations he attempted to conceal the massive donation by having the restaurant's wait staff put their names on the donation forms.
Property developers such as Mr Huang, who has since had his Australian permanent residency cancelled, are prohibited from donating to state political parties.
Mr Wong, Mr Clements and Mr Huang are all said to have been friends around that time as the billionaire splashed cash to buy "influence" and "proximity to power" in the party, the inquiry heard last week.
Mr Clements' phone became the subject of a protracted legal debate as his lawyers attempted to keep their own privileged messages with him from being divulged.
The device was put in a sealed envelope and then inside a locked drawer in the ICAC headquarters until a solution was reached.
Chief Commissioner Peter Hall QC, on Monday, ordered the ICAC's forensic team to pull the relevant messages from the device.
The messages with his lawyer will not be viewed by investigators, he added.
Mr Clements' lawyer Felicity Graham said the former Labor boss would not challenge the move.
A new affidavit from one of Mr Huang's alleged straw donors, tendered on Monday, said Mr Wong coached her testimony before the commission.
May Ho Yee, the matriarch of the Chinatown restaurant family, told the commission last year she donated at the fundraising dinner.
Last month she reversed that evidence.
She recounted, in her latest affidavit, how she met with Mr Wong in the restaurant after she first gave evidence in December 2018.
"After I told Mr Wong what I could recall I remember him saying words to the following effect to me: 'You should continue to tell the same story'," Ms Yee's evidence says.
"I apologise for not giving all evidence honestly on 17 September 2019. I was simply overwhelmed by the unfamiliar setting and defaulted to protecting my sons."
Ms Yee's affidavit means nine of the ten purported donors have now told the ICAC Mr Wong attempted to direct their evidence, Counsel Assisting the Commission Scott Robertson said.
The final donor, Leo Liao, took his own life in mid-2018 when he was first summoned to speak with the ICAC.
"All of those (remaining) nine have now given evidence Mr Wong gave them advice or direction as to what they should say in connection with the inquiries either before this commission or the Electoral Commission," he said.
The inquiry previously heard Mr Huang’s willingness to spend massive sums on political donations was behind Mr Clements’ willingness to set up a lunch with him and then federal Labor leader Bill Shorten.
A spokesman for Mr Shorten, on Monday, told The Daily Telegraph he attended because he was asked by the NSW branch.
“The party calls on the leader to attend countless functions and meetings,” the spokesman said.
“Mr Shorten was the first party leader to ban foreign donations.”
The commission has adjourned until early December when Mr Wong is expected to give evidence.