The boss of Canberra's Havelock Housing Association helped organise a Liberal Party election campaign event two weeks before Senate candidate Zed Seselja pledged $130,000 of taxpayers' money to the organisation.
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Havelock House chief executive Loc Luu helped to recruit a paying audience of community leaders to a ''meet the candidate'' dinner at a Gungahlin restaurant 14 days before Mr Seselja promised the money for a multicultural hub at Havelock's Northbourne Avenue headquarters.
Both Mr Luu and Mr Seselja have denied there was any link between the promised grant and Mr Luu's role in organising the political dinner, with the Liberals dismissing questions as ''offensive''.
The housing service's CEO emailed friends and professional acquaintances on August 13 asking them to book tables at the August 23 dinner at Gungahlin's Waterfront Restaurant to hear Mr Seselja talk about housing affordability and multicultural communities.
The Havelock House chief stressed in his email that the event was not a fund-raiser but a ''community-organised event''.
But a flyer attached to the email was produced by the Liberals and authorised by the party's ACT divisional president, Tio Faulkner.
It asked for payment of $48 per head or $450 for a table of 10 to be made to the Liberal Party of Australia ACT Division.
The flyer also suggested that invitees who could not attend could make a donation by cheque or credit card to Mr Seselja's campaign.
The promised federal funding of $130,000, which Mr Seselja made public on the day before the September 7 election, would pay for meeting rooms and administrative space for ethnic and cultural groups as well as refurbishment and repairs to the association's 64-year-old building.
The building's owner, the ACT government, told Fairfax Media that it had no idea its premises had been earmarked for a new multicultural hub.
The government operates its own multicultural centre a few kilometres away in Civic.
Mr Luu said he was surprised when he was told about the funding pledge on the day before it was announced.
But he agreed that he had been instrumental in drawing the crowd to the Waterfront Restaurant for the
meal. ''The Liberals organised it and I just helped them bring the people there,'' he said.
''It was a Liberal initiative. Yes, I helped to bring the multicultural community group, there but it was their idea.
''I'm not politically aligned, I can't be. I work with the ACT government. I appreciate the support of the ACT government, but federally, I'm very pleased and surprised with that funding that was given to us. It's timely, too.''
Mr Luu said he had been adamant to the Liberal Party office that he would not help organise a fund-raising dinner for Mr Seselja.
''I made it very clear,'' he said. ''It was not a fund-raising dinner, I would not organise a fund-raising dinner because I could not be seen to be aligned; and that's why it was only $45 a head.''
A spokeswoman for Mr Seselja's campaign said the dinner had been organised by the ACT Chinese Australian Association.
But when the association said this was not the case, Mr Seselja's spokeswoman said the Liberals ''assisted'' in organising the dinner.
''We assisted with the cost recovery to ensure that community organisations were not burdened with no-shows,'' she said.
''The line you seem to be running is that this was a cash-for-policy exchange. This is utterly untrue and based on nothing. To suggest we would be involved in such a thing is false and offensive.''