Former New South Wales Labor Party general secretary Jamie Clements was seen with a shopping bag filled with A$100,000 (US$67,600 at the current exchange rate) in cash after meeting Chinese billionaire and banned donor Huang Xiangmo (黃向墨), the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) heard yesterday.
The commission yesterday began its inquiry into a complex and potentially unlawful donations scheme that the commission has heard may have helped to hide a A$100,000 donation from Huang, whose associations with property development prohibit him from giving money to political parties.
The inquiry heard that Huang had visited Labor’s Sussex Street headquarters in April 2015, weeks after a Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner in Sydney.
That dinner was purported to have raised A$100,000 in cash from 12 donors, but ICAC is investigating whether they were so-called “straw” or fake donors.
Labor’s then-community relations director, Kenrick Cheah, said that he knew of Huang’s impending visit, but believed Huang was in “agriculture,” not property development.
Internal e-mails show Cheah knew Huang was a major donor.
Cheah said he did not thoroughly investigate Huang, but knew Huang was important.
“I would say that anyone who is rich is important,” Cheah said.
He watched Huang arrive at heaquarters and go to meet with Clements, but could not recall whether Huang was carrying anything.
A short time later, Clements came out of his office and handed him an Aldi bag, Cheah said, adding that the bag was filled with stacks of A$100 notes wrapped in elastic bags.
Cheah remembers Clements saying: “Here is some donation money and forms. Check the forms. If it is all OK, then give it to finance.”
The forms were reservations for the earlier Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner and Cheah said there were about 20 separate forms from different donors.
ICAC Chief Commissioner Peter Hall asked Cheah why Huang would bring in a shopping bag full of money.
“If the cash came from multiple donors, can you explain to me, why Huang Xiangmo, said to be an extremely wealthy individual would be carrying cash in a shopping bag on behalf of donors? Can you explain that to me?” Hall asked. “Why would a man of his stature be undertaking such a task of a delivery man?
Cheah said he supposed that Huang wanted to look like “the big man” who could bring a lot of money.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly