Audit chief claims he can’t remember making $1,500 political donation alleged to have been paid to a fund under Icac scrutiny

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The head of the government’s Commission of Audit made a $1,500 donation to the Liberal party which was allegedly paid into a slush fund currently being examined by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac).



Tony Shepherd, who released the Commission of Audit's report with the government on Thursday, faced a Senate committee hearing into the Commission of Audit on Friday morning.

Icac documents reveal Shepherd made a $1,500 donation to the Liberal party in 2010 which was then paid into the slush fund the Free Enterprise Foundation set up to help bankroll the NSW 2011 Liberal election campaign.

There is no suggestion Shepherd knew the money was going to the slush fund.

Shepherd was chairman of construction company Transfield when he made the donation.

It was around the time property developers were banned from making donations to the NSW Liberal party. Although Transfield did not technically fall into that category, it decided to halt donations from the company.

Labor senator Sam Dastyari asked Shepherd about the donation during the Senate committee hearing into the Commission of Audit, and Shepherd said he did not remember the donation, though his understanding would have been he was giving to the federal Liberal party.

“Transfield made a decision it would not make any donations at all to political parties and I as chairman endorsed that position. I believed the issues regarding corporate donations to political parties was becoming so vexed it was better to quit the field altogether so that was not because we were a property developer but because I felt the issues regarding corporate donations to political parties too vexed and we should not do it,” he said.

When Dastyari suggested the $1,500 was inadvertently coupled with an illegal donation, Shepherd replied: “That is something for others to deal with.”

The $1,500 is understood to have been the cost of a ticket to a Liberal party fundraiser.

“Frankly I can’t remember the donation. I can’t remember going to the event,” Shepherd said.

“I’ll check my records.”