Ms Murnain on Wednesday revealed she had learned of illegal donations from Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo in September 2016, but claims she was told by the party's lawyer to stay quiet. Within an hour of Ms Murnain's revelations to the ICAC on Wednesday, senior party officials were in crisis talks over her future as general secretary. On the third day of public hearings before the state's corruption watchdog, Ms Murnain said she first discovered the party had accepted an illegal donation from Mr Huang after she was called to the back of NSW Parliament by then-MP Ernest Wong in 2016. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Ms Murnain described Mr Wong as distressed, sweating and speaking quickly when the pair met on Hospital Road behind the Parliament around 6.45pm on September 16.

Loading “He sort of just blurted out that a donor who said they had given money to the Labor Party had not given money to the Labor Party.” “What the shit?” Ms Murnain said she responded. Ms Murnain told the inquiry, which is investigating an alleged scheme by her party to circumvent the state’s donation laws, that she quickly realised the gravity of the situation when Mr Wong told her about Mr Huang's involvement. “I do remember stepping back and realising what all this meant,” Ms Murnain told the ICAC.

After she learned the party had received the illegal donation, Ms Murnain said she called then-Labor senator Sam Dastyari for advice. “I mainly went to him because he was a predecessor who had dealt with Mr Huang and Mr Wong," she said. Ms Murnain said Mr Dastyari left his Sydney office and “dropped by the back of Parliament House” and picked up Ms Murnain. She said she was upset and crying during the car trip, in which Mr Dastyari advised her to call the party’s lawyers. Lawyer Ian Robertson leaves the ICAC on Wednesday. Credit:AAP However, when Ms Murnain privately met party lawyer Ian Robertson later that evening and told him "there's been a massive f--- up", he allegedly told her to forget about the meeting with Mr Wong and not enter any details about the conversation into her diary.

Loading "He asked me whether I thought Ernest was telling the truth or not," she said. "I said yes." "Ian said to me 'there is no need to do anything from here, don't record this meeting, don't put it in the diary, forget the conversation with Ernest and I won't be billing you for this either ... and don't tell anyone about it'." Mr Wong and Mr Robertson have not yet been required to give evidence at the hearing and neither has responded to the allegations in Ms Murnain's evidence. Mr Robertson also did not answer questions from the media as he left the hearing on Wednesday afternoon.

However law firm Holding Redlich, where Mr Robertson is a partner, said in a statement he would be providing evidence to the inquiry next week and had sought leave to cross-examine Ms Murnain. “Our partner Ian Robertson is a highly experienced legal adviser and he has the firm’s full support," the statement said. The ICAC is investigating whether a set of “straw donors” were used to donate the cash at a Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner in March 2015 in order to mask Mr Huang's involvement with the cash. Labor's 2015 fundraising dinner at the Emperor's Garden Restaurant in Chinatown. Pictured are Ernest Wong, second from left; Bill Shorten, third from left; Huang Xiangmo, second from right; and Luke Foley, far right. The ICAC has heard allegations that Mr Huang walked into Labor's headquarters in 2015 holding an Aldi plastic bag filled with $100,000 cash that was supposedly raised at the dinner and handing it to then-party boss Jamie Clements.

Ms Murnain told the inquiry she had no recollection of the bag of cash, but remembered being made aware of the fact there was a large sum of money in the office. She was vague in her recollection of the events of early April, when the cash was supposedly brought into Labor headquarters, but added it would be “out of the ordinary” for an amount of money that large to come in to headquarters. “I don’t remember seeing this bag that everyone is now talking about," she said. Ms Murnain also said Labor’s donations procedures and practices weren’t effective in 2015, adding that many people didn’t understand each other’s roles. Earlier in the day, Steve Tong - a supposed donor at the 2015 dinner - revealed he had never donated to Labor and his property developer bosses had used his name behind his back. Mr Tong is a former employee of property developer Wu International and one of 12 supposed donors to NSW Labor from the 2015 dinner.