NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption now has evidence before it that implicates members of the election campaign team which helped Tony Abbott become Prime Minister of Australia

@Kate_McClymont

Well it can no longer be ignored, the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption now has evidence before it that implicates members of the election campaign team which helped Tony Abbott achieve his goal of becoming Prime Minister of Australia.

This is a section of the 2010 email (above) copied to Brian Loughnane, Federal Director of the Liberal Party of Australia and husband of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s chief of staff, as well as Arthur Sinodinos who was then Honorary Treasurer of the NSW Division of the Liberal Party and a former chief of staff to John Howard when he was prime minister:

This email makes it clear that one property developer is unlawfully donating $25,000 to the NSW Liberal Party of Australia via the party’s federal associated entity, the Free Enterprise Foundation.

So will Brian Loughnane assert that he didn't read his emails in 2010 or will he, like Senator Sinodinos' lawyer, claim that routing unlawful donations to the NSW Liberal Party through the Free Enterprise Foundation was a legitimate action.

UPDATE

According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald on 8 September 2014, Liberal Party MP for Mackellar and Speaker in the House of Representatives Bronwyn Bishop has been identified in evidence before the Operation Spicer investigation as being a director of the Dame Pattie Menzies Foundation Trust which received $11,000 from the Free Enterprise Foundation on December 9, 2010, which it then directed to the NSW branch of the party for use in the 2011 state election and The previous day, Mr Partridge has sent a cheque for $125,000 to the Free Enterprise Foundation with a note which read: "We trust this donation will provide assistance with the 2011 NSW State election campaign". Additionally, A $2000 donation to the Dame Pattie foundation from Australian Corporate Holdings, a company connected to Sydney property developer and sailor Syd Fischer, was also passed on to the NSW Liberals.

The same article also pointed out that:

Previously suppressed emails at a corruption inquiry raise serious concerns about major donors to the Liberal Party being rewarded with extraordinary access to senior party figures.

The emails are from the chief fundraiser of the NSW Liberal Party Paul Nicolaou to Peta Credlin, one of the most powerful figures in the federal government….

As well as being chief of staff to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Ms Credlin is married to Brian Loughnane, the party's federal director.

The emails reveal that, in March 2011, while in Opposition, Ms Credlin was advised by Mr Nicolaou that the managing director of Brickworks, Lindsay Partridge, was "a very good supporter to the party".

 Brickworks was one of the largest corporate donors to the Liberal Party, giving a massive $384,000 in a nine-month period from July 2010 to April 2011.

As well as its brand Austral Bricks, Brickworks also lists property development as a core business. The ICAC has heard that Brickworks used the Free Enterprise Foundation, a shadowy Canberra-based organisation, to channel $125,000 in illicit donations  to the NSW Liberals for the March 2011 state election.