Yeah, Reminds me of the recent reports that Morrison wanted to introduce a bill in exchange for support for his religious bill. Some of his party room reportedly mortified about the prospect so it was soon knocked on the head. Concerns about retrospective action with respect to dealings involving lack of integrity.
Presumably their own party members may leak against them in pursuit of factional interests. This investigation in the OP took 4 years to conclude. Recommendations that charges should be laid. Followed by the possibility of drawn out court cases to follow. No wonder some Federal pollies don't want a bar of it. It could stymie their careers even if eventually acquitted.
Anyway it seems the NSW laws around donations from property developers has lead to various ploys to circumvent the restrictions.
ICAC found that two men, former NSW upper house member Ernest Wong and Sydney restaurateur Jonathan Yee, were the architects of the plan and that Mr Wong, as a member of NSW parliament, had engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” in doing so.
It also found that NSW Labor’s community relations director, Kenrick Cheah, allegedly helped the conspiracy by faking documentation and then lying to ICAC about it.
The ICAC investigation was made public in December 2019, when investigators executed a search warrant at NSW Labor’s Sussex St headquarters.
Two months later the ABC outlined the detail of the alleged conspiracy, which occurred at a March 2015 fundraising dinner in Sydney’s Chinatown for the NSW ALP’s “Chinese Friends of Labor” outreach group.
ICAC found that Chinese billionaire property developer and then Sydney resident, Huang Xiangmo, wished to donate $100,000 to the NSW Labor Party but was prevented from doing so by state election laws, which forbid donations from property developers.
Mr Wong and Mr Yee knew Mr Huang and, the ICAC alleges, devised a scheme to help obscure the source of the $100,000 by asking 12 members of Sydney’s Chinese community to sign false donation declarations saying it was their money.
Most of them claimed they donated $10,000 each, divided between the NSW branch of the ALP and Country Labor.
