Shaoquett Moselmane: AGs notified of High Court challenge to staffer raid
The nation‘s Attorneys-General have been notified of the High Court challenge to an ASIO and AFP raid against a NSW Labor MP’s staffer.
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A NSW Labor staffer who police suspect is a “covert” Chinese government agent has likely halted the investigation into alleged foreign agent influence of the NSW Labor Party as his High Court challenge against police takes another step forward.
The nation‘s nine Attorneys-General were given formal notices, over the last few days, that any legal case against Shaoquett Moselmane’s part time staffer, John Shi Sheng Zhang, was now before the most powerful judges in the land.
The “78B notices” invite the Attorneys-General from the states and territories, as well as federal Attorney-General Christian Porter, to participate in the case which Mr Zhang has brought against the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police and members of the judiciary which authorised the raids.
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The documents name members of the judiciary as Deputy Chief Magistrate Jane Mottley, registrar Joseph Karam and magistrate Michael Antrum.
Mr Zhang has not been charged, and the High Court challenge means authorities will likely have to discount anything seized under the warrants until a judgment is handed down.
If the High Court rules the warrants are valid investigators may be able to use the seized information and items in their investigation.
If the court rules in Mr Zhang‘s favour he has asked for those items and pieces of information to be either returned to him or destroyed.
It comes a week after Mr Zhang‘s lawyers asked the High Court to declare the warrants used to raid his home and business in late June and then his parliamentary office in July invalid.
His application, dated August 3, says the warrants “impermissibly burden the implied freedom of communication on governmental and political matters contrary to the Commonwealth Constitution”.
Mr Zhang is an Australian citizen who immigrated from China in 1989 and, since October 2018, has worked part time for Mr Moselmane.
Mr Moselmane’s Rockdale home was raided by the Australian Federal Police in June as part of a joint investigation with ASIO.
The Labor backbencher says he is not a suspect in the investigation and has not been charged.
According to the documents, authorities allege Mr Zhang and unnamed others, between July 2019 and June 2020, were “acting on behalf of ‘Chinese State and Party apparatus’ in a ‘private social media chat group and other fora’ with Mr Moselmane.
Police allege Mr Zhang and the others were “covertly” working to get Mr Moselmane to advance China‘s interests without telling him what they were doing.