Suspended NSW Labor boss Kaila Murnain has told an anti-corruption inquiry she was scared after learning of a potentially illegal donation to the party and conceded she should have made different decisions.
Ms Murnain was suspended on Wednesday night within hours of her testimony at an Independent Commission Against Corruption hearing on Wednesday.
Continuing her evidence on Thursday, an emotional and teary Ms Murnain said she was scared for the ALP after learning of the donation from Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo - a prohibited donor - during a conversation with upper house MP Ernest Wong in September 2016.
"We'd been through a lot that year, there were multiple court cases ongoing, there were by-elections current, I was scared for the office and the reputation of the party," she told the inquiry in Sydney.
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She said she was doing her best to make sure she followed legal advice and "I obviously recognise now that's something I shouldn't have done and I should have made different decisions".
She said Mr Wong was "distressed and agitated" when he told her a person who said they had donated money to the ALP had not and the money had come from Mr Huang.
Ms Murnain urged Mr Wong several times to get the person to come forward, the inquiry heard.
She said she couldn't remember the donation amount but connected it to the money raised at a 2015 Chinese Friends of Labor dinner which is at the centre of the ICAC inquiry.
"I do remember stepping back and realising what all this meant. That a significant donor had made a donation to our state campaign account who was a prohibited donor," Ms Murnain told Wednesday's hearing.
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