Corruption authorities are investigating Labor for accepting $400,000 from tobacco executive Peter Chen -- a breach of NSW law and Labor party rules.     

Chen is the director of Sydney tobacco company ATA International, and made the contributions through his other company Wei Wah, which imports cheap Chinese cigarettes that ATA distributes in Australia.

Labor has prided itself for standing for public health by taking on the tobacco industry that still takes some 15,000 lives across Australia each year. But how can we count on Labor to regulate Big Tobacco when it’s accepting cash from its executives?

Call on Labor to return $400,000 in contributions from tobacco executive Peter Chen.

Labor has championed plain packaging laws and excise taxes to reduce tobacco consumption across the country. But the cost of Big Tobacco’s influence is still high: tobacco-related illnesses account for $31.5 billion in health care costs each year.   

We can’t let Big Tobacco contributions twist Labor’s agenda on public health. Even Labor’s own Sam Dastyari, who oversaw one of Mr. Chen’s donations, said the time is now to ban such contributions.

This isn’t the first time we’ve stood up to dark money in Australian politics. When recent reports show that up to 49% of political donations go undisclosed, we need Labor to take a real stand for political transparency. Let’s call on Labor to put public health over Big Tobacco interests by returning Chen’s compromising $400,000.

Demand Labor live up to its promise to take on Big Tobacco and return Chen’s donations.