Scandal a serious problem for Anthony Albanese

Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: AAP

A week out from a by-election with potential implications for Anthony Albanese’s leadership, a major scandal has erupted in his own backyard.

The federal Labor leader must now deal with revelations of Chinese spies within the ranks of the scandal-plagued NSW branch. With uncomfortable questions still remaining over the Victorian Labor government’s Belt and Road deal, this is now fertile ground for the government to revisit.

 

Friday’s dramatic raid on Labor upper-house MP Shaoquett Moselmane, while a self-contained investigation, presents a serious problem for Albanese.

It has far more serious political implications for the federal party than the branch-stacking and corruption allegations in the Victorian ALP division. And it has the potential to derail Albanese’s Eden-Monaro campaign with only a week left to run.

Moselmane has links into the federal caucus through his branch involvement within the NSW Right and some of its key federal members. It also follows a well-documented history of links to Chinese foreign influence within the NSW branch.

Attempts to subvert Australian democracy and exert influence over politicians is now rife. As ASIO boss Mike Burgess and his predecessor Duncan Lewis have warned, there are more foreign agents on Australian soil now than during the Cold War.

The threshold for ASIO to issue warrants for raiding the office of a member of parliament is extraordinarily high.

Both parties have been warned about this. In 2017, ASIO briefed Liberal and Labor officials and cautioned them against taking donations from two key Chinese figures. This was the genesis of the foreign interference laws.

Burgess has issued multiple warnings that ASIO was going to “hunt down” spies. It belies comprehension that MPs wouldn’t think this was an overt caution to their own vulnerabilities.

While foreign interference has reached into the Liberal Party as well, the relativities are stacked heavily Labor’s way. The questions Albanese will be faced with are why has this been tolerated and why hasn’t something been done about it.

It has been three years since Labor senator Sam Dastyari was forced out of parliament after being caught warning a suspected Chinese agent that his phone was being tapped. Friday’s raid has taken this to a whole new level.

With all the issues facing people in Eden-Monaro, it’s questionable whether the foreign influence scandal will have an impact, but it won’t help.