Liberal Party candidate quits over unregistered ‘charity’

A LIBERAL Party candidate has quietly withdrawn from the state election after it emerged she was the face of an unregistered “charity” that claimed to have raised more than $10,000.

A LIBERAL candidate has quietly withdrawn from the state election after it emerged she was the face of an unregistered “charity” that claimed to have raised more than $10,000.

Upper House hopeful Neelam Rai is a director of No Hunger — a group “working to eradicate poverty” that says helping people is its “bread and margarine”. Its website lists bank details for donations and claims contributions over $2 are tax deductible.

But the Sunday Herald Sun can reveal that No Hunger is not a registered charity or fundraiser, nor does it have deductible gift recipient status.

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Asked how No Hunger had spent the $10,089 it boasts about raising, Ms Rai said she “won’t have any idea" and stressed that No Hunger had not collected any donations. 

She initially said she was “just a brand ambassador”, before admitting she was a company director but claimed she had resigned six months ago.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy and Neelam Rai.

But documents show she was still listed as a director this month. The Liberal Party then issued a statement that Ms Rai would withdraw because her preselection nomination form was “incomplete in that it failed to disclose a number of issues of relevance”.

Documents show Ms Rai and husband, Manish Dhingra, are both directors of No Hunger. He has convictions for a string of driving offences between 2007 and 2012 and has pleaded guilty to at least four charges of breaching bail.

He was jailed for 14 days after he breached the conditions of a two-month wholly suspended sentence for disqualified driving.

Ms Rai said this did not conflict with her party’s tough-on-crime stance because: “I go with tough on crime. He would have his circumstances or his reasons to do that and he has already suffered for it.”

She is the second Northern Metro candidate to withdraw after the Greens’ Joanna Nilson quit over Facebook posts boasting about shoplifting.