Mr Hastie received the information during a recent briefing in the United States, and his decision to go public without providing advance warning to senior government ministers has triggered a heated political debate in Canberra. Mr Chau has donated a total of $4 million to the two major political parties - though they have both stopped taking money from him. Neither party has committed to returning any donations Mr Chau provided. A Liberal Party spokesman did not address whether the party would hand back donations but said that "donations to the Liberal Party of Australia are received and disclosed in accordance with the law”. Australian Labor Party national secretary Noah Carroll did not return calls or respond to questions. Fairfax Media has been told, meanwhile, of concern at the naming of Sydney University’s new museum, to which Mr Chau donated $15 million.

The Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney will reopen in 2020 as a merged institution with two other museums to become the Chau Chak Wing Museum. A source with close knowledge of discussions said at least two of the six museum councillors felt very strongly that the university should find some way to dissociate the museum from Mr Chau in light of this week’s claims. But the university had presented the council with “a fait accompli” response that breaking Mr Chau’s naming rights over the museum was not possible, the source said. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video A Sydney University spokeswoman said that Mr Chau’s donation would enrich the cultural life of the community and benefit the University’s teaching and research.

“The university has no concerns that Dr Chau’s gift would ever be used to inappropriately influence any facet of the university’s operations,” she said. She did not directly address specific questions on whether the university was considering returning the money or had sought legal advice on changing the name of the museum. Architect Penelope Seidler, who has donated $750,000 towards the Chau Chak Wing Museum, said she did not know the details of the allegations but said it was “very disappointing” to hear he was accused of bribery. She said the matter was “an ethical dilemma” that Sydney University would have to dwell on. Chau Chak Wing and vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney Dr Michael Spence in Guangdong, China, shaking hands on the gift to build the Chau Chak Wing Museum.

Mr Chau also paid $20 million towards a Frank Gehry-designed building at the University of Technology Sydney. A spokesman said the university had neither considered abandoning the Chau Chak Wing name on the building nor returning the donation. When asked whether Mr Hastie should resign from his role as chairman of the powerful parliamentary intelligence and security committee, Labor's shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said this was a matter for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. “It’s obvious that when someone in the position of the chair of the Joint Intelligence and Security Committee of the Australian Parliament uses publicly information obtained from US agencies that is going to raise concerns and potentially leads to some loss of confidence in our ally in the way in which it shares information with us,” he said. Mr Chau's lawyers issued a statement late on Wednesday saying he was "very disappointed" that Mr Hastie had used parliamentary privilege "to repeat old claims and attack his reputation just weeks before some of these matters are tested in court".