All roads lead back to Wong as ICAC delves into Chinatown lucky money

How could a property developer be allowed free roam in a state MP’s office? Will NSW Labor ever learn?

Ernest Wong leaves the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) public inquiry into allegations concerning political donations in Sydney. Picture: AAP

Ernest Wong’s generosity of spirit would seem almost boundless.

It was mentoring of a unique sort, on the face of it, when the NSW Labor MP arranged an access pass for Alex Wood to enter Parliament House in Sydney’s Macquarie Street and work out of his office.

The young man did so “every week or fortnight”. He used an office computer to view “NSW websites” on the parliamentary system where he could see pending government legislation, Labor opposition correspondence, even internal party comms for Wong.

Wood said this week that Wong wanted to train him as a “future leader” in Sydney’s Chinese community. Bravo, Ernest.

There is something wrong with this scenario that began sometime after March 2015, and possibly before. Apart from possible misuse of an MP’s entitlements for private purposes, there was another more fundamental problem. How could a property developer be allowed free roam in a state MP’s office?

Wood, also known as Alex Wu, was managing director of a property development company called Wu International based at Chatswood on Sydney’s northside.

Two Wu International staff were also declared $5000 donors to the NSW Labor Party at a Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner that was held in Sydney’s Chinatown on March 12, 2015, a fortnight before a state election.

The sticky issue with any Wu International contributions was that property developers had been banned from donating to political parties in NSW since 2009.

The prohibition, meant to clean up terrible rorts, tripped up some NSW Liberal MPs in 2014 when the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption delved into murky dealings on that side of politics.

Do people ever learn? Three weeks into public hearings of ICAC’s latest investigation, the NSW Labor Party seems not to have worked out that transparency and following the rule book may be a good idea.

Departed already is Kaila Murnain, NSW Labor’s head office boss, after admitting to her role in covering up a $100,000 cash donation by a Chinese property developer, Huang Xiangmo. Murnain stayed silent when informed about it in September 2016.

Huang has declined to tell his side of the story. But the billionaire businessman — living in Hong Kong since December, when his Australian residency was cancelled because ASIO rated him a “foreign interference” risk — has issued a statement saying he had “nothing to do” with the $100,000 donation. What to make, then, of the allegation Huang personally delivered an Aldi shopping bag stuffed with cash to NSW Labor’s HQ several weeks after the March 2015 fundraiser?

All roads, it seems, lead back to Wong, who lost his seat in March. He has told ICAC he gave Huang “a big bag of cash” on the night of the March 2015 dinner from other donors at the event. Wong did so, he claimed, because the Chinese billionaire kindly offered to deliver the bag to NSW Labor’s then party boss, Jamie Clements, at a scheduled meeting.

ICAC believes this explanation, and others, are implausible. The thesis of ICAC’s counsel assisting, Scott Robertson, is that the names of a dozen “fake” donors were used some time after the Labor HQ cash delivery to cover up its true source: Huang. NSW Labor disclosed the $100,000 total as single $5000 contributions that were conveniently just below the cap for individual donations.

If it is proven there was a scheme to hide the truth and circumvent NSW electoral funding laws, then it would have to rate as one of the most farcical, sloppily executed conspiracies of recent times.

Valentine Yee, whose family owns the Emperor’s Garden restaurant in Sydney’s Dixon Street, wanted ICAC to take him seriously this week.

Yee claimed a $5000 donation he made to the NSW ALP came solely from “lucky money” he had received a month before the March 2015 dinner in Chinese New Year gifts from relatives.

ICAC’s interrogators doubted Yee donated any money or was even at the dinner — especially after the admission he did not vote Labor and had no interest in the party.

But their scepticism did not stop Yee sticking with an elaborate story about how the bulk of $100,000 at the heart of this alleged cover-up was legitimate cash donations made at the dinner by himself, his brother, his mother and his father. Oh, and four to five low-paid waiters too. All up, they supposedly gave $85,000.

While Valentine said he gave $5000 cash, he wanted ICAC to believe his family members also had $10,000 cash “lying around” that they handed over at the table.

These $10,000 amounts were later split into two donations of $5000 — one to NSW Labor and another to the party’s regional entity Country Labor.

It was a rough experience for Yee, the family restaurant’s financial controller, as he grappled with how his mother May Ho Yee’s detailed answers to queries from the NSW Electoral Commission in 2017 about her $10,000 “lucky money” were “almost identical” to his own. He helped her, he said, but only as a translator.

The key to the Yee family’s generosity is not so much Valentine but his brother, Jonathon.

According to one version of Valentine Yee’s story, he parted with $5000 because his brother asked for a donation.

Jonathon Yee’s account is still to come — but it is a fact that he was central to the Labor fundraiser as Wong’s co-organiser. Unlike Valentine, Jonathon does have a Labor pedigree. He was NSW Labor’s unsuccessful candidate for Sydney lord mayor in 2012, backed to the hilt by then head office boss Sam Dastyari.

ICAC is certain to ask Jonathon Yee about his role in encouraging family and restaurant staff to donate to Labor — and whether any did.

Alex Wood, the Wong protege, is in a similar position. One former Wu International employee, retired project manager Steve Tong, has denied he gave $5000 despite records saying the funds were donated in his name.

Tragically, another former Wu employee, Leo Liao, cannot speak for himself because he committed suicide last year, leaving a note that linked his death to the donations scandal.

Many questions remain about Huang, the banished former friend of Wong and Dastyari. Advocates of widening the ICAC investigation point to one reference in state electoral laws about removing the “perception that certain foreign donors could exert influence over the Australian political process”.

So far, the focus is lucky money in Chinatown.