The Liberal candidate for Bennelong, Scott Yung, appears to be distancing himself from the party as a paid ad tells the Chinese-Australian diaspora that he does not “blindly follow” instructions, highlighting his previous criticism of Scott Morrison.
A Chinese language ad, launched on the Australian Financial News WeChat page on Thursday morning, carried the headline “He once publicly criticised his party leader” and highlighted Yung’s “independent thinking”.
The ad, launched at 6am, coincided with reports in the Australian Financial Review that Yung had allegedly told voters at polling stations that “the leader’s not going to be there forever”. Yung told the outlet that the report was “a lazy smear attempt” and that he “strongly supports” Peter Dutton.
Dutton later batted off the reports, saying Yung had “denied those rumours”.
The WeChat ad – narrow-cast to Chinese-Australians, who are likely to play an influential role at Saturday’s election – was authorised by Warren Wang, who appears to be a member of Yung’s team and has authorised other material promoting his campaign.
Guardian Australia contacted Yung’s campaign to confirm whether they authorised the ad, as well as the Coalition’s campaign team.
“I am a proud long-term member of the Liberal Party, running as part of Peter Dutton’s team to deliver a Liberal Government,” Yung responded.
The ad did not mention Dutton, but it highlighted previous criticism by Yung of the party’s treatment of the Chinese diaspora, and described him as someone who would not blindly follow orders.
“Although Scott is a member of the Liberals, he doesn’t blindly follow,” said the ad. “Instead he has independent thinking and he will serve the country based on national interest.
“For instance, when Liberals lost the 2022 federal election and lost the 2022 NSW state election, Scott, based on facts with a comprehensive view, wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald to criticise former PM Scott Morrison for causing damage to the Chinese Australian community.”
A 2022 review of the Liberal party’s election defeat raised serious concerns about how the party was engaging with the community and the impact of the Morrison government’s hawkish approach to China.
Almost one-third of residents in Bennelong have Chinese ancestry. The Labor member, Jerome Laxale, holds the seat with a margin of just 0.1%.
In recent days, several media outlets alleged volunteers for the independent MP Monique Ryan were directed to vote for her by an organisation with reported historical links to a Chinese foreign influence unit. The group was also linked to Labor frontbencher Clare O’Neil’s campaign.
Ryan and O’Neil denied any wrongdoing but the matter was being considered by the “electoral integrity assurance taskforce”, which is run by the electoral commision, the federal police and the domestic intelligence agency.
The allegations drew strong criticism from Liberal frontbenchers, including Jane Hume, who suggested “Chinese spies” may have been handing out how to vote cards for O’Neil.
But the criticism from Liberal frontbenchers was not well received by some members of the Chinese-Australian community on WeChat who believed it was unfair and called for a boycott of Liberal candidates in Victoria.
In response to Hume’s comments, one WeChat user said: “How could the Liberals say things like this? Everyone should put the Liberals last on the green ballot.” The green ballot refers to the House of Representatives voting card.
On Thursday afternoon, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, also referenced Hume’s comments in a one-minute video uploaded to WeChat, in which she briefly spoke in Mandarin.
“Liberal senator Jane Hume accused Chinese-Australians volunteering in the federal election of being Chinese spies,” Wong said in the video. “We’ve seen this before from the Liberal party. Why is it that the Liberal party continues to question the loyalty of Chinese Australians?”
The Liberal party’s review of the 2022 election found that in the top 15 seats by Chinese ancestry, the two-party preferred swing against them was 6.6% compared with 3.7% in other seats.
The Thursday WeChat ad acknowledged the Liberal party’s relationship with the Chinese-Australian diaspora had been strained and positioned Yung as someone who could repair it.
“Scott understands the difficulties and needs of Chinese-Australians and feels lucky that he grew up in multicultural Australia,” the campaign ad said.
“As he continues to contribute to the prosperity and development of Australia, he also wants to make some contribution to bridge the Chinese-Australian community and the Australian community and make Chinese-Australian voices heard.”
Elsewhere, Yung has faced sustained questioning about his campaign spending during the 2019 state election related to free endorsements from Chinese celebrities and free work provided by a PR agency. Yung has said this work did not need to be disclosed in campaign expenditure reports as it was voluntarily provided for free.
When Dutton campaigned in Bennelong earlier this week, Yung faced questions from the travelling press pack and again repeated his assurance that his disclosures were compliant with the law.
