Free hotel stays for Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane in China

Beijing paid for Shaoquett Moselmane’s hotels and transport during trips to China while Huawei gave him a free phone.

NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane received free accommodation, transport and gifts from the Chinese government during numerous trips to China over the past decade, and on one occasion received a free mobile phone from telecommunications company Huawei.

Filings lodged with the NSW Parliament show Mr Moselmane had his accommodation and transport costs met by a host of Chinese government entities during visits to Shanghai, Guangxi and other localities since entering parliament in 2009.

On some occasions these costs were borne by the Chinese Consulate in Sydney and municipal governments in China, or by organisations with ties to the Chinese Government.

The revelations jar with remarks made by Mr Moselmane on Monday that he had never been the recipient of a Chinese-government sponsored trip.

“I pay for all of my private overseas trips,” he said in a prepared statement to journalists on Monday. “I paid for my airfares and I paid for my accommodation.”

While the disclosures confirm that Mr Moselmane paid for his airfares to China, they reveal a slew of gifts and other benefits received during his repeated visits to the country.

During one visit in 2011 Mr Moselmane was given a mobile phone by Huawei representatives on a trip to Shanghai. The company was blacklisted by the Turnbull government in 2018 from Australia’s 5G network in response to advice from security agencies.

In 2012 he received travel contributions from the Fujian Provincial Government and the municipal governments of Xiamen, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Tianjin. The precise nature of these contributions was not specified in the disclosures.

Mr Moselmane has visited China at least nine times since entering parliament; he told journalists that his interest with the country developed at high school while studying its history and politics.

Listed often in the disclosures are contributions from the Australian Chinese Association, of which Mr Moselmane is a founding member. According to China analysts, the organisation is linked to Beijing’s network of foreign influence operations, the United Front Work Department.

Concerns have been raised about Mr Moselmane’s associations with that entity and another linked to the UFWD, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which has various branches across China.

The Australian can reveal that In 2012 Mr Moselmane hosted the head of the CPPCC’s Fujian Provincial Committee, Liang Qi Ping, at NSW Parliament, taking her delegation on a tour of the building.

Three years later he met with the chair of the CPPCC, Jie Ju, in Songjiang, Shanghai, during a trip to discuss wheelchair donations for disabled children.

Mr Moselmane broke his silence over allegations of foreign interference and police raids on his home and parliamentary office on Monday, reaffirming his allegiance to Australia and telling journalists that he was not a suspect in the ongoing federal police inquiry.

The Lebanon-born MP was suspended from the NSW Labor Party last week as both his home and that of his part-time staffer, John Zhang, were raided by AFP officers. In addition to working for Mr Moselmane, Mr Zhang is the managing director of a sunglasses business that is headquartered in a warehouse in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Moorebank.

Mr Moselmane confirmed in his remarks that he would seek a leave of absence from parliament while the investigation continues.

“I am not a suspect in this investigation,” Mr Moselmane said. “I may have been born in Lebanon, but my loyalties are to Australia. My allegiance is first and foremost to Australia.”

Claiming that a “political lynching” had already commenced, the Labor MP pointed to an upcoming byelection in the federal seat of Eden-Monaro, to be contested on July 4, while querying the timing of the raids.