Jing Lee: Political dynamo with all the right connections

Jing Lee has become the Marshall government’s linchpin in securing SA’s Chinese vote.

South Australian MP Jing Lee with husband Eddie Liew.

Jing Lee is a campaigning dynamo, a fundraising machine, a highly connected networker and an intelligent 53-year-old businesswoman who has become the Marshall government’s linchpin in securing SA’s Chinese vote.

Born in Malaysia of Chinese ancestry, Ms Lee is married to businessman Eddie Liew, who made his name in the property business through Adelaide’s lucrative international student market.

The handsome pair have become a fixture at Adelaide arts events and are often photographed on the red carpet at premieres in the city.

As assistant minister to Premier Steven Marshall, Ms Lee also plays a special role for the state government on multicultural affairs and often represents the Premier at community events and festivals.

Her colleagues told The Australian they regarded her as diligent and likeable, and also a strong backer of China who clearly had good connections with the consulate. “On one occasion I had a group of businesses who came to see me because they were having some visa trouble and I rang Jing and she said she would make a call,” one MP said. “It was all fixed within a couple of days.”

One MP said Ms Lee and her office had warned Liberal MPs against having anything to do with Falun Gong, the dissident spiritual group banned in China, which has a permanent presence on Adelaide’s North Terrace in front of the SA Art Gallery. “She emailed us saying we should have nothing to do with them because it would upset the Chinese government, and a few of us wondered why we should be worried about upsetting the Chinese government,” the MP said.

Ms Lee emigrated to SA from Malaysia in 1979 and studied an MBA at the University of South Australia. She was urged to enter politics ahead of the 2010 state election by then-Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith, who has described her as “a massive fundraiser and a terrific conduit with the multicultural community (and) probably the hardest working of all the Legislative Council members I’ve seen”.

Even though she was in the tough fourth spot on the Legislative Council ticket, she ran a strong campaign at the 2010 election and repeated the feat at the 2018 poll.

Her 2018 campaign was notable for the army of volunteers she attracted, with hundreds of election posters all over the city, mainly in Chinatown, and at supportive Chinese-owned businesses around the suburbs.