Somali-Australian political candidate in trouble for receiving payments from FGS minister uncle

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Liberal candidate dropped over payments from Somali minister uncle

By Paul Sakkal

The Liberal Party has dropped its candidate for a federal seat in Melbourne’s north-east because she receives payments from her uncle who is a minister in the Somali government.

Zahra Mustaf was set to run for the notionally marginal seat of Jaga Jaga but was disendorsed on Monday night. The party feared her financial arrangement may have breached the nation’s foreign interference laws and foreign donations ban – both designed to guard against foreign governments holding sway over Australian officials.

The single mother told party officials she required the stipend to supplement her income, according to two party sources speaking anonymously to detail the candidate vetting process. Ms Mustaf, who declined to comment when approached by The Age, subsequently offered to stop receiving the payments but the party’s decision to disendorse was unchanged.

The party did not believe the Canberra hopeful had any intention of pushing the interests of the Somali government in Parliament, if such interests exist. Rather, Liberal sources said the party was concerned the payments would open Ms Mustaf up to political attacks from the Labor Party during an election in which the Morrison government would seek to enunciate its strength on national security issues.

The Somali government is in the midst of a presidential crisis and has been gripped by civil war for decades.

A Liberal Party official said the decision to remove Ms Mustaf was not driven by any potential negative perception of the party being associated with the Somali government, but was prompted purely by the legal and political risk associated with breaching the foreign laws.

One experienced Liberal official said the episode highlighted the complex set of rules that candidates needed to follow when running for Parliament. The senior Liberal emphasised it was not uncommon for first-generation immigrants to exchange money, in both directions, with relatives that still live overseas.

“It’s sad [she] had to go through this. She would have been a great asset for us,” the official said.

“We should be trying to become a more inclusive Parliament for Aussies from different backgrounds.”

Ms Mustaf joined the party less than a year ago and therefore required special approval to run for Parliament. A separate official said the disendorsement highlighted the risk of preselecting candidates with little experience in party politics, whose potential disqualifying features may not be known to fellow members. The party last month preselected another new party member, former crown prosecutor and Survivor contestant Sharn Coombes, for the swing seat of Dunkley.

Jaga Jaga, which takes in the suburbs of Ivanhoe, Eltham and Heidelberg, is held by Labor’s Kate Thwaites on a margin of 6.7 per cent. ABC election analyst Antony Green projects this margin will be reduced to 5.9 per cent due to a boundary change, meaning it falls within the margin deemed to be “marginal”. However, Labor has held the seat for its entire history.

Both major parties in Victoria are in the process of selecting candidates for the next election which Prime Minister Scott Morrison may call any time between September this year and March next year. Victoria is historically not a state where many seats change hands. Labor will target Chisholm in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, while the Coalition is aiming to win back Corangamite and Dunkley.

Ms Mustaf’s financial arrangement was picked up by the party’s candidate vetting panel, which was instituted by Victorian division president Robert Clark and modelled on a NSW party committee. The panel included senator James Paterson, the chair of the Parliament’s intelligence and security committee that will soon begin reviewing whether the nation’s foreign interference scheme could work more effectively to capture harmful activity by countries such as China and Russia.

The foreign influence laws, enacted by the Turnbull government, are designed to capture activities of foreign governments or entities to exert influence in Australia. The scheme has been criticised for forcing benign individuals, activists, and think tanks to register as agents of foreign influence rather than capturing genuinely harmful agents.

Momentum for the world-leading foreign influence scheme was driven largely by growing concern by security agencies about the influence of the Chinese government on Australian domestic affairs.


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NB for mods: posted on general because I didn't know if it came under Somali politics or Global Affairs.
 
Yes finally a government that doesn’t approve corruption, how come somali ministers can afford to provide for people in western country?
 

Periplus

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Yes finally a government that doesn’t approve corruption, how come somali ministers can afford to provide for people in western country?

Luckily these events occurred with little fanfare. Had she stood for election (which she would've lost) and these allegations came out, the Somali community would have taken a massive L.

The article doesn't mention how much money but I wouldn't be surprised if the FGS politician was an Australian citizen and this lady was stashing his money for him.
 
I didn't even know there was a Somali running for State Government. It's probably because Somalis are now inside Local Government in places like Banksia.

Unfortunate.

That being said I wouldn't have fancied her chances in the North East Suburbs of Melbourne.
 
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Apollo

VIP
99% more likely he is Harti/MJ
Most Somalis who lives Australia and New Zealand are Harti, especially Victoria state

Minnesota as well. Why is this?

European Somalis seem more diverse clan-wise. Only UK has some Isaaq skew, rest is basically all kinds of random Somalis.
 
Minnesota as well. Why is this?

European Somalis seem more diverse clan-wise. Only UK has some Isaaq skew, rest is basically all kinds of random Somalis.

99% is a gross exaggeration. Harti's are the majority but not the whole population.

The skew in Australia is probably related to immigration policy. Those that came in the 2000s had a harder time getting asylum for a number of reasons. People that got assylum in the 90s would have come from particular communities and are the majority.

99% more likely he is Harti/MJ
Most Somalis who lives Australia and New Zealand are Harti, especially Victoria state

Do you know which Somalis in the North East suburbs? I'll tell you this much, it isn't a Harti majority there.
 

Periplus

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I didn't even know there was a Somali running for State Government. It's probably because Somalis are now inside Local Government in places like Banksia.

Unfortunate.

That being said I wouldn't have fancied her chances in the North East Suburbs of Melbourne.

Not state but federal sxb.
 

Ahmed Ato

Self-interest
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NB for mods: posted on general because I didn't know if it came under Somali politics or Global Affairs.
do Somalis vote for or run as conservative there?. why is she running for the liberal party?.
 

Periplus

It is what it is
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do Somalis vote or run as conservative there?. why is she running for the liberal party?.

To the best of my knowledge, two Somalis have run for federal/state office and both have run for the Liberals (Conservative).

Nearly all Somali vote Labor but the Liberals will always get a token African to run in an unwinnable seat so they claim diversity. This seat in particular has been Labor since establishment, so unwinnable.

The Liberal party got controversy for poaching this Kenyan minor-party senator (Lucy Giuchi) to switch only to then put her in an unwinnable position for the next election.
 

Ahmed Ato

Self-interest
I always say 50K.

Can’t see it being higher than that but also seems accurate. Somalis are everywhere in Australia now but most still live in Melbourne.
before 2017, a lot of Somalis were doing tahriin to Australia from Malaysia/Indonesia but they started cracking down beginning 2017. i even got ads on Youtube in Somali (a Somali dude saying ha so tahriibina waa la idin celinaa). after that, Somalis stopped doing tahriib to there.
 

Qeelbax

East Africa UNUKA LEH
VIP
Minnesota as well. Why is this?

European Somalis seem more diverse clan-wise. Only UK has some Isaaq skew, rest is basically all kinds of random Somalis.
Harti? Minnesota is known for OGs, ajnabi call some major somali cities og-town
:deadmanny:
 

Qeelbax

East Africa UNUKA LEH
VIP
There is an MJ overrepresentation.

Check Ilhan Omar's tribe.. not a coincidence.
I know she’s mj lol but we should keep up the MJ over representation. I don’t want OGs taking the Ls for Minnesota Somalis and their shenanigans
:mybusiness:
 

Aurelian

Forza Somalia!
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NB for mods: posted on general because I didn't know if it came under Somali politics or Global Affairs.
A Somali-Aussie political candidate is getting money from her minister uncle in another country. Do you see who we got benefits from globalization? :lolbron:

I wouldn't be surprised if there were Somali relatives with political positions in different countries. Like SA, NZ Australia etc
 

Apollo

VIP
A Somali-Aussie political candidate is getting money from her minister uncle in another country. Do you see who we got benefits from globalization? :lolbron:

I wouldn't be surprised if there were Somali relatives with political positions in different countries. Like SA, NZ Australia etc

Got a relative working in upper management at a globalist organization. You know the ones the conspiracy theorists all like to demonize, can't say which one, for doxing reasons.
 

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