Lib MP Gladys Liu chipped in $100k for poll fight

Gladys Liu personally poured at least $100,000 into her campaign to win the marginal Melbourne seat of Chisholm.

Gladys Liu donated a “six-figure’’ sum to her own campaign after Liberal polling had shown the party faced an uphill battle to hold Chisholm. Picture: Kym Smith

Embattled Liberal MP Gladys Liu personally poured at least $100,000 into her campaign at the last minute to win the marginal Melbourne seat of Chisholm after being told she didn’t qualify for a significant cash injection from the party.

Ms Liu donated a “six-figure’’ sum to her own campaign after internal Liberal polling had shown the party faced an uphill battle to hold Chisholm in the wake of Julia Banks quitting the seat.

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Ms Liu’s donation will escalate the debate around the Hong Kong-born MP’s connections and fundraising ability.

She is the first elected Chinese-Australian member of the House of Representatives and is ­embroiled in controversy over links to the Communist Party and her fundraising efforts.

She has raised more than $1m for the Liberal Party.

Ms Liu and the party would not say how much she donated to her 2019 campaign but The Australian understands it is at least $100,000.

It is understood Ms Liu, who won the seat with just 50.6 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote, had wanted the party to better fund the seat with extra mailouts and social media activity, with a particular focus on ethnic Chinese voters.

It is possible the personal cash injection won her the seat.

Asked about the source of the $100,000, Ms Liu’s office said it was “done so in her own personal capacity’’.

Discussions have been held in the Liberal Party about whether that cash injection should be repaid to Ms Liu.

It is not the party’s habit to return funding donations to candidates unless there is unspent cash, senior sources said.

A Liberal spokesman said: “The Liberal Party complies with all federal and state donation disclosure laws, including federal restrictions on foreign donations.

“The disclosure requirements are no different for candidates ­donating to the Liberal Party. The party’s commonwealth disclosure return for the 2018-19 financial year, which includes the 2019 federal election, will be published by the AEC in February 2020.”

It is believed the reporting cut-off date was October 20. A spokesman for Ms Liu said any money provided by her had been done under her own volition.

“Any financial support ­provided to the Chisholm campaign will be declared in the usual way. Ms Liu and the Chisholm campaign are compliant with all donations laws,’’ the spokesman said.

“Any support provided by Ms Liu to the Chisholm campaign was done so in her own personal ­capacity.’’

Chisholm is in Melbourne’s east and is considered difficult to poll because of the high number of Chinese-Australians who live there, with many said to be unwilling to “interfere’’ in domestic ­political issues.

This is being blamed for some party surveys that had shown Labor leading in the seat by 60 per cent to 40 per cent, suggesting it had become unwinnable after the resignation of previous Liberal incumbent Ms Banks.

The seat is also notoriously factional, with opposing sides of the Liberal Party warring over control of the local branches.

Ms Banks’s decision to quit the party before the election and run in another seat had the potential to derail the Liberal campaign. Ms Liu has admitted to raising more than $1m for the Liberal Party, including for local MPs and candidates. She also has admitted to previously having been a member of a Chinese group that later became part of the Communist Party propaganda machine.

Scott Morrison has stood by Ms Liu, declaring: “Gladys is a ­Chinese-born Australian. Does that make her in ­cahoots with the Chinese government? Of course no. It is a ridiculous suggestion and I think it is an insult to every single Chinese-Australian in this country.”