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FRESH claims have emerged over a $100,000 cheque donated to Richard Torbay’s election campaign. The Armidale Express first reported on the donation, the second biggest in NSW given in the lead up to the 2011 election, in November last year. Then, Cameron McCullagh, who lives with his wife Georgina in Sydney, told The Express he donated the one-off cheque to Mr Torbay because “Richard is the sort of man I want in politics. He is effective.” Ms McCullagh owns the private investment company GEGM Investments, a private company investing in firms such as White Outsourcing, an accounting and investment service and Employers Mutual. Yesterday, Fairfax Media reported Mr Torbay received the donation just two months after then NSW planning minister Tony Kelly “dropped a heritage listing on this family’s north shore home’’. The donation pushed Mr Torbay’s election campaign war-chest to $114,415 from July 2010 to June 2011. Comparatively, over the same period fellow NSW independents Peter Besseling and Peter Draper declared just $14,602 and $33,000 respectively. At the time, Mr Torbay said the donation was “much appreciated”. He reported to the Election Funding Authority that he used $64,633 to promote his election campaign. He spent a total of $41,103 on television advertisements, $1489 on catering for a meeting in November 2010 and $5839 on “food, refreshments, decorations and gifts”. Mr Torbay was dumped as NSW Nationals candidate for the federal seat of New England earlier this week. He subsequently resigned as State MP for Northern Tablelands and brought forward by one month his resignation as Chancellor of the University of New England. Late yesterday, the NSW Nationals confirmed they had referred Mr Torbay to the Independent Commission Against Corruption ICAC is currently hearing claims made against former powerbroker Eddie Obeid, whose wife is a cousin of Armidale property developer Phil Hanna. Fairfax Media reported Mr Hanna was Mr Torbay’s campaign manager in the lead up to the 2007 state election. Mr Hanna and his wife Jenny were also the largest donors to Mr Torbay’s 2007 campaign, donating more than $6200 between them. Mr Hanna told The Express on Wednesday he had not heard from Mr Torbay. He said he had tried to phone him on his mobile, however, Mr Torbay did not return his calls. Meanwhile, Fairfax Media reported yesterday Mr Torbay had assisted independents in the Parliament to run against Liberal and National MPs.

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