‘Political prisoner’ Matthew Ng says Labor has abandoned him

Matthew Ng, Australia’s first Chinese political prisoner, is disappointed Labor has refusal to support a bid to free him.

Australian Matthew Ng pictured in Beijing before he was jailed.

Matthew Ng, Australia’s first Chinese political prisoner, has expressed his disappointment with Labor’s refusal to support moves to have him released.

Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said last week: “We are in frequent contact with the Department of Foreign Affairs ... to ensure we offer ­proper assistance to people, but also to ensure that we ­continue to have successful ­prisoner-­exchange relationships with other countries.”

Ng was jailed for 11½ years in a Guangzhou court over white-collar charges that would not constitute a crime in Australia, and which he has denied.

He is the only person to have been transferred under a prisoner swap program put in place five years ago with China.

In response to Ms Plibersek’s statement, he said: “What has changed to the ALP’s position on the rule of law, justice, compassion and fairness?”

He said, through his lawyer, Tom Lennox: “My experience so far since I came back has not lived up to the standard this ­nation has always prided itself upon.”

Ng will be eligible for consideration for parole in about five months, when he will have served about six years in jail, four of them in Chinese prisons.

Three of his children are in high school in Sydney, several hours’ drive from the Muswellbrook jail where he is being held. His fourth child, 14-year-old daughter Isabella, starved herself to death after suffering depression following her father’s imprisonment.

Mr Lennox said yesterday that the International Transfer of Prisoners legislation stipulates that the Attorney-General, ­George Brandis, may change a sentence if he “considers (it) necessary to ensure that ­enforcement to the sentence is consistent with Australian law”.

He added: “Matthew’s time spent in jail to date is double the time he would be expected to serve in Australia for, say, white-collar fraud, ignoring for the ­moment the events would not constitute a crime in Australia.”