After suggesting he ask NSW Labor’s then-executive officer and now party boss Dominic Ofner, Latham alleges Minns replied that he would instead speak to Jamie Clements, the party’s then-general secretary and the now premier’s best friend.
“I relayed the conversation immediately to Dominic as I was curious to understand if there was a mechanism for remediating Mr Minns’ issue,” Latham alleges.
Ofner told the Herald: “If anyone had ever put something like that to me, I would not wait 11 years to air it before a parliamentary inquiry run by Labor’s political opponents – I would have reported it to the proper authorities, including ICAC and the Electoral Commission. Any suggestion or imputation that I failed to act on potential illegality is false, baseless, and defamatory.”
In a press conference, Minns rejected any insinuation of wrongdoing, calling on the committee to release any information they held.
“I just make a simple request of the committee, rather than drip-feeding this information out to cause political attacks, release it all. Get it all out today, put it into the public domain and let the public make up their mind,” he said.
“I don’t want there to be any ambiguity. Ambiguity that a charge or a suggestion that my staff or myself are directly involved in some kind of inappropriate or illegal behaviour is completely wrong.”
Latham said he had no further conversations with either Minns nor Clements about the 2014 fundraising event, including what was done with “the monies that could not be reconciled or accounted for”. The Herald does not suggest Ofner or Clements had any involvement in the donations.
“Get it all out today, put it into the public domain and let the public make up their mind.”
Premier Chris Minns
Latham was contacted for comment.
In his inaugural speech, Minns wrote that Clements, who resigned as Labor’s general secretary in July 2016, is the godfather to one of his sons.
However, Latham later noted, “in his experience”, the provision of donation forms on dining tables was “standard practice” during fundraising events to “serve as a record of the donation and a declaration that the donor was not prohibited under NSW Electoral Laws”.
The committee’s confidential inquiry revolves around decade-old allegations first raised during the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s 2019 probe into $100,000 illegally donated to the NSW Labor Party by property developer Huang Xiangmo. The inquiry’s public hearings heard former Labor MP Ernest Wong and Labor figure Jonathan Yee were involved in concealing the source of around $10,000 in donations to Minns’ campaign.
During his evidence, Yee, who ran as the party’s candidate for City of Sydney lord mayor, told the corruption inquiry he reimbursed a number of straw donors after they signed cheques made out to Minns’ campaign. Yee agreed the purpose was to disguise the “true identity” of the donors.
Asked whether he set a $100,000 fundraising target for Minns’ campaign by Clements, and that he “needed Mr Huang to contribute” to meet the goal, Wong first said he could not recall, then agreed he was working towards a target before later saying he had “definitely not”.
Minns at the time said he would immediately forfeit the funds associated with Wong and Yee.
Scott Robertson, counsel assisting the ICAC, said the purpose of his questions was not to target Minns but to “shed light on the conduct” of Wong, Yee and others. ICAC chief commissioner Peter Hall, QC, said because Minns had not been called to provide evidence, it would be “quite unfair for anyone to draw inferences or suggest the significance of any evidence concerning the cheques”.
On Tuesday, Abigail Boyd, Greens MP and chair of the committee, made a public statement to parliament. She suggested the NSW Electoral Commission had investigated donations made to Minns’ 2015 Kogarah campaign, calling on them to “consider interviewing additional witnesses”.
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“The Committee believes that the NSW Electoral Commission has a clear obligation in the public interest to keep the people of NSW informed of progress with any investigation into this matter,” she said.
“The Public Accountability and Works Committee is concerned that the Electoral Commission did not do that in relation to Kogarah.”
Evidence received by the committee had been referred to the Electoral Commission, Director of Public Prosecutions and ICAC, Boyd said.
Now a director at KPMG, Latham was thrust into the spotlight in 2015 after his then fiancee, Stefanie Jones, alleged Clements assaulted her in parliament. Clements denied the allegations, and an investigation found there was “insufficient evidence” to substantiate the claims.
The Director of Public Prosecutions holds a brief of evidence from the Electoral Commission. No charges have been laid.
The ICAC declined to comment. The NSW Electoral Commission did not respond to the Herald’s questions.
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