Chinese spies in plot to install ALP candidates at coming federal election

Chinese spies sought to bankroll the campaigns of hand-picked NSW Labor candidates in the upcoming federal election, in a plot foiled by ASIO.

Chinese spies sought to bankroll the campaigns of hand-picked NSW Labor candidates in the upcoming federal election in a plot foiled by ASIO.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess referred to the case earlier this week, without identifying the political party involved or the nation behind the plot, saying a wealthy “puppeteer” had worked with a local “cut-out” to try to secure the election of sympathetic candidates.

Multiple national security and ALP sources have confirmed to The Australian that the case involved an attempt to subvert Labor’s NSW federal preselection process last year.

Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison were briefed on the conspiracy.

Mr Albanese on Friday said he met with Mr Burgess regularly, but was unable to comment on the contents of those briefings.

However, he said he had received assurances that ASIO had no concerns about any preselected Labor candidates.

“I have spoken to Mr Burgess today and he has reaffirmed he has not raised concern about any of my candidates. I can‘t be clearer than that,” Mr Albanese said.

In a statement on Thursday, NSW Labor Party general secretary Bob Nanva said the state branch had not been briefed on the matter by ASIO.

“NSW Labor can confirm that no national security agency has ever raised these alleged matters with the parliamentary leadership or the organisational wing of the NSW Branch,” he said.

Revealing the spy plot in his annual threat assessment on Wednesday, Mr Burgess said the agency was on high alert for political interference.

“I can confirm that ASIO ­recently detected and disrupted a foreign interference plot in the lead-up to an election in Australia,” he said.

“I’m not going to identify the jurisdiction because we are seeing attempts at foreign interference at all levels of government, in all states and territories.”

Mr Burgess said case involved a “wealthy individual with direct and deep connections with a foreign government and its intelligence agencies”, who

“I’ll call this person ‘the puppeteer’, although it’s important to ­remember that while the puppeteer pulled the strings, the foreign government called the shots.”

Anthony Albanese says he has been assured ASIO holds no concerns over the ALP’s NSW candidates. Picture: David Crosling.

The “puppeteer” provided hundreds of thousands of dollars through an offshore bank account to run foreign-interference operations through a third party with ­direct links to politicians, political staff and journalists

“This agent of interference has roots in Australia but did the bidding of offshore masters, knowingly and covertly seeking to advance the interests of the foreign power and, in the process, undermine Australia’s sovereignty,” Mr Burgess said.

The confirmation that the plot targeted potential Labor MPs came as Defence Minister Peter Dutton doubled down on his claim that China has decided to back Labor at the federal election.

He said there was “intelligence” and open source information of links between China and the ALP.

“I think there’s no doubt that there are elements within the Communist Party that would be very happy to see the back of our government,” he said.

“From what I see, both open source and other intelligence that I see, it’s a statement of the obvious, and there are relationships going back to Sam Dastyari and Bob Carr is still very close to Beijing, and there are many others.”

Mr Albanese said the suggestion China favoured Labor was “just desperate”. He said he taken a strong stand against foreign interference, and been clear in his rejection of Chinese trade bans against Australia and Beijing’s repression of Uighurs and citizens of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“I'm not going to sit back and cop the sort of nonsense that has been put forward, from a government that sat back, while the port of Darwin was sold to interests of a company directly engaged with, directly connected to, the government of the People's Republic of China,” he said.

Mr Dutton’s attack followed his claim to parliament on Thursday that it was “open and obvious” that China was backing Labor to win the election.

“We now see evidence that the Chinese Communist Party has also made a decision about who they’re going to back in the next federal election … and that is open and obvious,” Mr Dutton said.

“And they have picked this bloke (Mr Albanese) as their candidate,” he added.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told ABC Radio the Mr Dutton’s attack was “a sign of desperation”.

“(His comments) were purely for crass political advantage,” he said.

“We’ve got to stand our ground (against China), but we’ve got to do so in a measured way. There has got to be nuance and diplomacy.”