For some, it was the photo that took the cake. Former Newcastle mayor Jeff McCloy, who has admitted giving illegal donations to state MPs, has apologised for posing with a birthday cake shaped like a brown paper bag overflowing with cash.
Social media lit up on Sunday night after The Lucky Hotel in Newcastle, owned by Mr McCloy, posted an image of the grinning former mayor and his cake on its Facebook page. The photos were hastily removed.
The property developer resigned as Newcastle mayor in August after admitting at the Independent Commission Against Corruption to giving envelopes stuffed with $10,000 in cash each to former Hunter Liberal MPs Tim Owen and Andrew Cornwell before the last election, as well as a smaller sum to Swansea MP Garry Edwards. Some of the cash was handed over in his luxury Bentley.
It has been illegal for property developers to make political donations in NSW since January 1, 2010.
In a statement on Monday, Mr McCloy apologised for what he described as the "bad judgement" of one of the guests at his surprise birthday party who provided the cake.
"I am fully aware of the seriousness of the current ICAC investigation and its ramifications," he said. "I sincerely apologise that this has occurred."
Mr McCloy, who was reportedly unaware of the cake before it was unveiled, told the ICAC earlier this year that he felt like a "walking ATM" at times because he was often pressed by political aspirants for donations.
"For more than 30 years I have lived by the words 'Do it anyway', written verse from Mother Teresa," he wrote in a dossier he gave to the media during his appearance at the ICAC. (In fact, the poem was written in 1968 by a Harvard undergraduate called Kent M. Keith, who extolled the virtues of being kind even in the face of accusations of selfish or ulterior motives).
Mr McCloy told counsel assisting the ICAC, Geoffrey Watson, SC, that the poem had sat on his desk for 30 years.
"And that had what to do with $10,000 being passed over in an envelope in the back of a Bentley, what did Mother Teresa have to do with that?" Mr Watson asked. "Were you working from her inspiration when passing over the cash?"
Mr McCloy said the poem was "given to the press to tell the whole story of this because what's happened with the press in this particular case, when people ah, talk about brown paper bags, when people talk about Bentleys and, and wealth et cetera, there is a quite improper feeling out there by the press and the blogs that I've seen about my actions in my life."
"If you were prohibited from making a donation do you take inspiration from it [the poem] and do it anyway?" Mr Watson asked.
"No," Mr McCloy said.
Mr McCloy has launched a High Court challenge to the laws banning political donations from developers.
Social media users reacted angrily after photos of Mr McCloy and the cake circulated online.
"You would have thought he would have made a Mother [Teresa] cake! Do it anyway!!" @bobbieskates tweeted.
A manager of the Lucky Hotel declined to comment on Monday.
