Ernest Wong accused of giving false evidence over fundraiser

Ernest Wong asked if he told anyone the head table for a Chinese Friends of Labor dinner had been “taken for $100,000”.

Ernest Wong arrives at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. Picture: AAP.

Former NSW upper house MP Ernest Wong has been accused at ICAC of giving “false evidence” after allegedly telling someone the head table for a Chinese Friends of Labor dinner had been “taken for $100,000”.

On the table were then Labor leaders Bill Shorten and Luke Foley.

Counsel Assisting Scott Robertson asked Mr Wong repeatedly at the inquiry into illict donations: “Do you deny you ever said to anyone that the head table. had been taken for $100,000”

Seated at the head table at the Chinese Friends of Labor dinner: Earnest Wong, left, Bill Shorten, Huang Xiangmo, far right, and Luke Foley, second from right.

Mr Wong, called to give evidence at ICAC, replied: “Not to my best recollection have I said that.” He was later forced to concede his earlier answers were “wrong.”

“I didn’t tell a lie, I tried to search my memory,” Mr Wong said.

ICAC has previously heard that $100,000 was given to former Labor Secretary Jamie Clements from a dinner in an Aldi Bag, by developer Huang Xiangmo in breach of donations laws.

Mr Robertson accused Mr Wong of “giving false evidence” over the funds and showed him an email to a Mr Joseph Law saying “Sorry, but the head table has already been taken for $100,000.”

Mr Wong said he had lied to Mr Law to put him off trying to get onto the head table.

Mr Robertson again accused Mr Wong of giving false evidence.

Mr Robertson accused Mr Wong of giving false evidence again when he denied in a budget for the event he wrote he was expecting $100,000 for the head table.

Mr Wong was shown a budget table he authored anticipating $100,000 for the head table.

The budget for the Chinese Friends of Labor dinner

He was also shown an email naming him as the person responsible for the head table aiming for $10,000 a seat outside the $5000 donations cap restriction.

Mr Wong claimed the meeting was in Cantonese and may have been misinterpreted by Labor official and his friend Jonathan Yee, who wrote the email.

The email naming Mr Wong as the person responsible for the head table.

Mr Robertson asked: “You sold the table to Mr Huang Xiangmo for $100,000 and in exchange he and four other guests sat on the table with Mr Shorten, Mr Foley and you, correct?”

Mr Wong: “No.”

Mr Robertson suggested that, outside the union movement, Mr Huang was the biggest federal donor to the Labor party and had also donated to the Liberal Party.

A table shown to Mr Wong showed that Mr Huang and four “Huang guests” were at the main table and federal Labor frontbencher Tony Burke and his partner Skye Laris were at another table.

Mr Wong told the commission not all of the money was used for Labor campaigning and he had agreed with party official Kenrick Cheah to use some of the funds for Chinese media press conferences involving federal politicians, and for community functions.

Commissioner Hall said such an agreement was “highly improper”.

Mr Robertson showed Mr Wong a table of donations money not to be put into a Labor party account but into a “friends of Chinese community” account.

The table of donations money to be put into a “friends of Chinese community” account.

Mr Wong agreed with a proposition from Mr Robertson that $12,200 from the Chinese Friends of Labor dinner was deposited in the friends of Chinese Community bank account rather than a Labor party account.

Mr Robertson also asked Mr Wong if some money was deposited direct in the campaign account for the state seat of Prospect, now held by Labor MP Hugh McDermott. Mr Wong said he was not sure.

Mr Wong was told by Mr Robertson he would be recalled on Monday and should think carefully over the weekend to see if he wanted to correct his answers and whether they were truthful.

The Labor official who took the $100,000 from the Aldi bag home to count, Kenrick Cheah, was then recalled to give evidence around suspended General Secretary Kaila Murnain.

Asked by Mr Robertson if he was sure Ms Murnain was the person who had told him to “be careful” with the money, Mr Cheah said: “I’m quite sure.”

Yesterday, NSW ALP leader Jodi McKay declared her party is in a ­“terrible state” and she “cannot fathom” how a ­donations scandal involving “bags of money being brought into Labor headquarters” had been allowed to fester for five years.

Declaring a lack of confidence in her party’s campaign organisation, Ms McKay yesterday that Labor would not win government again until it earned the trust of voters.