Twenty-two thousand dollars worth of funds paid to a Liberal Party fundraising group for Treasurer Joe Hockey's electorate, from the Obeid-linked Australian Water Holdings company since 2009, have been repaid.
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The refund comes following reports by Fairfax Media that the group already paid back $11,000 more than a year ago to the company after it attracted the attention of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Mr Hockey's office confirmed on Thursday that a further $22,000 had been repaid in so-called ''membership fees'' for a Liberal Party instrumentality in his North Sydney electorate known as the ''North Sydney Forum''.
News of the initial $11,000 repayment prompted the NSW division of the Liberal Party this week to repay almost $75,000 in donations made by the company into its coffers.
The company's chairman at the time had been Arthur Sinodinos, who went on to secure endorsement in the Liberal Party for automatic entry into the Senate in late 2011, filling a casual vacancy created by the outgoing Helen Coonan. He was named assistant treasurer in Tony Abbott's frontbench in September.
The stench of corruption said to surround multiple aspects of AWH, including allegations of secret equity by the Obeid family, misappropriation of millions of dollars in public funds, and plans to corruptly obtain lucrative contracts with Sydney Water, has already cost Mr Sinodinos his ministerial post.
Labor on Thursday pressed the government to explain how - if Senator Sinodinos has officially been stood aside and denied any conditions attaching to his ministerial role, including pay, staff, and perks - the arrangements appeared so ad hoc.
The opposition questioned the constitutionality of a minister standing aside and not being eligible for ministerial salary, without having his commission withdrawn by the Governor-General.
It described as ''laughable'' the fact that the main legal instrument relieving Senator Sinodinos of his ministerial salary and related privileges, was a letter penned by the senator himself to the President of the Senate and a similar one to the Special Minister of State asking for his pay and conditions to be stopped and dropped back to those of a basic senator for NSW.
The revelation that yet more donations went from AWH to the Liberal Party suggests the full extent of the web of shadowy financial links between the company and senior Liberal and Labor figures has not yet fully been exposed.
The total amount repaid by Mr Hockey's electorate machinery since the first allegations of corruption at AWH and its links with the disgraced former state Labor minister Eddie Obeid, now totals $33,000.
The North Sydney Forum's website features a smiling shot of Mr Hockey above the words, ''By joining the North Sydney Forum you will have the opportunity to participate in a regular program of events including boardroom lunches with Joe Hockey, focused on key policy areas that are nominated by Forum members''.
His office advised the membership fee, as paid by AWH for the three years, 2009-10-11, was a hefty $11,000 per year.
In Parliament on Thursday, Mr Abbott refused to be drawn on what he knew of Mr Sinodinos' business activities before entering Parliament.
Senior Liberals continued to rally around the embattled suspended minister, with his old boss, John Howard also weighing in with some heavyweight endorsement.
''I simply place on the record my continuing high regard and high esteem for him,'' Mr Howard said.
Apology: An earlier version did not make clear that any funds paid by Australian Water Holdings were paid to Joe Hockey's fundraising and campaigning arm and were refunded by that same body. The Herald accepts Mr Hockey did not personally receive or refund any money from AWH. The Herald regrets the error.
