Labour MP and Cabinet minister Michael Wood. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Labour MP and Cabinet minister Michael Wood. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Government minister Michael Wood took the witness stand in the High Court at Auckland today to recount conducting an informal investigation of a substantial Labour Party donation five years ago that the Serious Fraud Office would later allege to be fraudulent.
Although Wood spoke with three people who would later be charged with crimes, his own inquiries didn't make much headway, he suggested.
"I assured him this wasn't about accusing him of anything - it was simply about making sure we had accurate information," the MP said of his brief 2020 call with one defendant who now has name suppression.
"He gave a general assurance that everything was above board and kosher, but I was unable to get specific information."
The Mt Roskill-based politician, who has climbed party ranks since his election in 2016, flew into Auckland for the testimony at the trial of businessman and New Zealand Order of Merit member Yikun Zhang, former National MP Jami-Lee Ross and five others with business and political ties.
Four of the seven accused in the political donations trial are Yikun Zhang (left), Shijia (Colin) Zheng, Hengjia (Joe) Zheng and Jami-Lee Ross. Photo / Jason Oxenham
All seven defendants - including businessmen brothers Shijia (Colin) Zheng and Hengjia (Joe) Zheng, as well as the three people who have name suppression - are accused of helping to illegally mask large donations from Zhang to either National or Labour in the year prior to his Order of Merit honour, which was bestowed in 2018 for services to New Zealand-China relations and the Chinese community.
Each defendant pleaded not guilty last week as the lengthy non-jury trial before Justice Ian Gault began.
The Serious Fraud Office prosecution focuses on two donations to National - $100,000 in 2017 and $100,050 in 2018 - and an allegedly "sham" auction at a 2017 Labour fundraiser in which Zhang is said to have bought five paintings for $60,000.
Donations totalling more than $15,000 over the course of a year must be declared to the Electoral Commission, according to the Electoral Act. Prosecutors allege Zhang split the donations into lesser amounts and recruited people to make the donations in their own names so he could skirt the requirement.
The scheme was intended to deceive the Electoral Commission, the public and the secretatries of both parties, the Serious Fraud Office alleges.
Wood said he received a call in February 2020 from Labour campaign manager Hayden Munro asking him to look into the art auction fundraiser from three years earlier, which Wood hadn't attended himself. The National donations had already surfaced, resulting in intense public and media interest, and Labour officials were anticipating questions from the media regarding if the same people were involved in donations to their party, Wood recalled.
"[Munro] was confident the party had fulfilled its obligations in terms or reporting," Wood said, explaining that Munro asked him to see if he could "elucidate information about the [auction] items" and "get some assurance that the people who purchased them had the items".
Yikun Zhang, pictured with former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy when awarded his MNZM for services to New Zealand-China relations and the Chinese community. Photo / Supplied
"... I think there might have been some suggestion there was absence of detail we just wanted to get."
Of the three people he spoke to who would later become defendants, Wood said he had a general recollection of all the conversations having similar results - assurances but no specific details.
Wood also knew Zhang through multiple public events over the years. He described the defendant as the "driving force" behind the Chao Shan General Association, which was focused on the Chinese diaspora in New Zealand. In 2015, Wood had written a letter in support of the group hosting a large convention in New Zealand.
The MP was present at another fundraiser in September 2017 during which Zhang spent $100,000 on an antique imperial robe and two other works of art, although Wood characterised his involvement in the event today as "largely an observer" attending with a group of other Labour officials.
Fundraisers in which art is auctioned off are commonplace, he testified under cross-examination. MPs periodically get advice, via emails and workshops, about compliance with campaign finance rules and good practice, he also acknowledged.
Wood took on Cabinet roles as Minister of Transportation and Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety following the 2020 election. In June, PM Jacinda Ardern also handed him the immigration portfolio.
Fellow Cabinet minister Andrew Little is expected to testify tomorrow, as well as Andrew Campbell, who has served as the PM's chief press secretary since 2018.
