Count on Kevin Rudd to free up Chinese cash

Cartoon: Peter Nicholson

FORMER PM Kevin Rudd may not have been able to lead the Labor Party back to victory in the 2013 election, but he did bring home the bacon in a different way: his return appears to have prompted a flood of donations from the Chinese community.

Electoral commission records released yesterday show $850,000 was donated by the mysterious Zi Chun Wang, who hails from the capital of China’s Hebei province, Shijiazhuang, and is said to be an Australian-Chinese businessman in the property game.

And there’s close to $200,000 stumped up by Hong Kong company Rich Global Holdings, which corporate records show belongs to mainlander Zhenqing Zhang.

Closer to home, the Australian Chinese Business Elite Awards, held in Melbourne on July 29, 2013 — less than a month after Rudd resumed the top job — collected $260,000 from the local Chinese business community and donated it to the ALP.

Rudd attended the awards night at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne, as did Labor luminaries Bob Hawke, Dan Andrews and Anna Burke.

The ACBEA’s AEC return was signed by director Zhaoqing Jiang, a media entrepreneur whose other interests include magazine Oriental BQ, which is co-published by Ostar International Media Group and Beijing Youth Daily Group, the publisher of the Chinese Communist Youth League’s official paper.

Lords and Libs

MEANWHILE, the Liberal Party enjoyed the benefit of $250,000 from Lord Michael Ashcroft, a well-known patron of the conservative cause both here and in Britain (and sometime resident of tax haven Belize).

His lordship had a particular interest in the outcome of the election as owner of financial services outfit Anne Street Partners, which stood to be inconvenienced by Labor’s Future of Financial Advice reforms.

Just before the election, Anne Street was pinged by ASIC for giving inadequate advice to clients over self-manged super funds. The Libs also took $15,000 from Lynas founder Nick Curtis, the father of alleged insider trader Oliver Curtis.

Different fortunes

IT was all smiles for James Packer in Manila yesterday, where the casino magnate was opening yet another pokie palace alongside his buddies.

The billionaire street fighter was among friends: casino partner Lawrence Ho and his RatPac mate, Hollywood guru Brett Ratner.

It’s a different story in Sri Lanka, where Packer appears bereft of friends after a new government canned a tax break for a new Crown resort and banned new casinos.

Crown responded by abandoning the $400 million project on Friday — something new PM Ranil Wickremesinghe didn’t take lying down, wire service A P reports.

“Packer says he will not come,” Wickremesinghe said in a weekend speech. “Who asked you to come?”

“Please don’t come — not in this lifetime. We need only good investors ... we don’t want an economy relying on casinos.”

Murray’s new gig

HAVING wrapped up his Financial Services Inquiry, David Murray is casting around for a new gig.

He’s got several possible options, including a return to Credit Suisse.

After a stint as chairman of the Future Fund, the former CBA boss started working as a senior adviser for Credit Suisse in 2011, setting up shop in the Sydney office.

However, he had to step aside from the role when Treasurer Joe Hockey tapped him for the inquiry gig in December 2013.

“No formal arrangement has been entered into” is all a Credit Suisse spokeswoman would say.

Seek and ye shall …

Andrew Bassat’s Seek says an “administrative oversight” is to blame for forgetting to update his share holdings with the ASX. Some oversight — he got the first lot back in September.

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