The New State Labour Party headquarters was raided today. (photo by the Guardian)
New state corruption investigators raided the New State Labour Party`s Sydney office today, and the Federal Labour Party was quick to support it. Some media claimed that the search was related to the "Labour Chinese friend" (Chinese Friends of Labor) fund-raising campaign.
Staff at the New State Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) raided the NSW Labour Party headquarters in (Sussex Street), CBD Suther Street, Sydney this morning, the Australian news agency reported. According to Labour sources, ICAC employees have access to Labour computer systems in their offices.
Given that the raid coincided with the Labour Party`s National Congress in Adelaide, leading Labour figures, including New State Labour Party President Manaan (Kaila Murnain), attended the closing meeting. As a result, Labour sources said the timing of the raids was "clearly deliberate".
Labour officials in New York told the Australian news agency that they could not comment on the matter for law reasons. An ICAC spokesman also said he would not comment on specific action matters. Sources speculated that the raids were linked to political contributions received by Labour in the past. Aussa said several important figures from new states and federations have been linked to Chinese political donors in recent years.
After the raid, (Matt Thistlewaite), a federal Labour MP, said he supported ICAC`s work, telling Sky News (Sky News): "ICAC is an important body to expose corruption, investigate corruption and eventually get a lot of people prosecuted and imprisoned in the new state."
Obi-bid (Eddie Obeid) and Macdonald (Ian Macdonald), former authority figures of the New State Labour Party, were charged with corruption and jailed after being investigated by the ICAC.
But Mr Westerwitz also stressed that there was no way to comment on "ongoing investigations." He did not comment on the timing of the search, saying he did not want to "speculate" about ICAC`s actions, saying only that "full support should be given to his part of the work."
Although the cause of the raid is unknown, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ICAC staff searched financial documents related to the "friend of Labour Chinese" fund-raising dinner.
The Sydney Morning Herald said the search was related to the 2015 "friend of the Chinese Labour Party" fund-raising dinner at the New State election, and that the important link between Labour politicians and wealthy Chinese donors was (Ernest Wong)., a new state Chinese upper congressman.
"the donation in question was received in 2015 and, with the full cooperation of the New State Labour Party, was fully investigated by the New State Election Commission, including a review of all relevant documents," the New State Labour Party said in a statement on the matter today.
