Former Australian PM under campaign donation scanner

Australia`s Labour Party number crunchers are questioning why an A$200,000 (about $181,000) election campaign donation ended up in former prime minister Kevin Rudd`s electorate account.

Sydney: Australia`s Labour Party number crunchers are questioning why an A$200,000 (about $181,000) election campaign donation ended up in former prime minister Kevin Rudd`s electorate account.

The donation, one of the largest during Labour`s 2013 campaign, was made Sep 3 allegedly by a Taiwanese businessman, identified as Kung Chin Yuan, the Brisbane Times reported Friday.

Under the electoral donation guidelines of the Australian state of Queensland, a donation of A$100,000 or over has to be declared within seven days.

It was alleged that the A$200,000 donation was not declared.

A spokeswoman for Rudd, however, said all campaign disclosure steps were taken and referred all inquiries to the state and federal Labour Party offices.

The report, citing sources, said a smaller donation, allegedly from the Taiwanese businessman was originally sought for Rudd`s local Griffith (his constituency) campaign.

However, after Rudd became prime minister again June 26, 2013, Kung`s alleged donation ended up much larger than anticipated.

"People don`t make A$200,000 donations to branch accounts, it just doesn`t happen," the newspaper quoted a person, not mentioning his name, as saying.

Terri Butler, Labour Party`s replacement for Rudd in the federal parliament for the Griffith seat, said she only became aware of concerns over the scale of the donation last week.

Butler said she sent a proxy to the party`s administrative committee meeting Wednesday night to discuss two issues, one of which was the concerns over the donation.

"I know it was on the agenda yesterday (Thursday), but really what I`ve read in the paper this morning is all I know about what happened at the meeting," she said.

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