Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane to be suspended over ASIO raid into Chinese interference

NSW Labor leader to move against Shaoquett Moselmane over ASIO’s investigation into foreign interference.

NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay has confirmed her party will move to suspend MP Shaoquett Moselmane from state parliament in response to ASIO’s investigation into allegations the Chinese Communist Party may have made covert attempts to influence him as a politician.

NSW Labor will move a motion when state parliament resumes on August 4 to suspend Mr Moselmane from his position in the state’s upper house. Any further step to expel the Labor MP permanently would dependent on the outcome of the ASIO probe.

The extraordinary decision to suspend Mr Moselmane from the parliament comes two days after Ms McKay said she had asked NSW Labor’s general secretary Bob Nanva to take steps necessary to suspend the MP’s party membership, with the effect of excluding him from party room meetings and forcing him to sit on the cross benches.

Ms McKay arranged for a message to be delivered to Mr Moselmane on Sunday morning that gave him an opportunity to support his own suspension from parliament, making it clear that the party would act to do so if he declined.

The decision on parliamentary suspension was made earlier at a meeting Ms McKay held with the ALP’s leadership group.

Going the further step of suspension from parliament appears driven by the Labor opposition wanting to take the matter of Mr Moselmane’s future back into the party’s own hands after NSW Liberal Treasurer Dominic Perrottet flagged on Saturday that the government would move a motion for the MP’s suspension from parliament.

Suspended Labor MLC Shaoquett Moselmane, far right.

Mr Perrottet had said strong action was needed because the “grave circumstance” of the ASIO investigation which went to “the very heart of our democracy” – but the government lacks numbers in the upper house where Mr Moselmane sits and was not in a position to passed any proposed motion without Labor or crossbench support.

Ms McKay has told colleagues she accepts the importance of upholding the “integrity of the NSW parliament” and how it might have been placed at risk, as the basis for pressing ahead for Mr Moselmane’s parliamentary suspension.

The Labor MP has not been charged with any offence at this stage. ASIO has acted under the terms of federal foreign interference laws, and any prosecution that did follow would be the first of its kind since legislation was passed two years ago.

ASIO and Australia Federal Police officers conducted raids on Friday of Mr Moselmane’s home at Rockdale in Sydney and his parliamentary office in the city’s Macquarie Street, removing files and folders.

The investigation is understood to be focused on whether covert activities were directed by the Chinese Communist Party to influence Mr Moselmane, his staffer John Zhang and others.

Mr Moselmane was forced to stand aside in April from his position as assistant president of the NSW Legislative Council, the state’s upper house, after repeatedly speaking out in support of the Chinese government’s response to COVID-19. At other times he has been outspoken in his support of Chinese government foreign policies, and has taken numerous CCP-funded trips to China. He has also been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, adopting positions outside party policy or at odds with it.

Ms McKay said the decision she had made to seek Ms Moselmane’s suspension from parliament had received unanimous support from senior Labor opposition frontbenchers and was not “not taken lightly”. Suspension a mechanism rarely used by the parliament, possibly last used in the 1960s.

The NSW Opposition leader said she had made the decision based on information received in a briefing from investigating agencies on Friday, and she reserved the right to make further decisions as required.

She reiterated Mr Perrottet’s point that Mr Moselmaine had not been charged with any offence. But she said national security was above partisan politics. “This is an issue I need to fix as leader of the Labor Party,” she said.

While Ms McKay stopped short of calling on Mr Moselmane to go the further step of resigning from parliament, she said such a decision was “up to him at this point” and she hoped he was actively considering it.

The planned move to suspend him not only from the ALP but from parliament would mean he could no longer enter the parliamentary chamber or sit on upper house committees.