By Erin Pearson
A former Liberal Party member will spend at least a year in jail after he became the first person found guilty under Australian foreign interference laws.
Di Sanh Duong, also known as Sunny Duong, appeared in the County Court of Victoria on Thursday where he was ordered to serve an immediate jail term for planning to commit an act of foreign interference using an Australian government minister.
Di Sanh Duong arrives at the County Court of Victoria on Thursday.Credit: AAP
Judge Richard Maidment said Duong, 68, maintained contact before and during his offending in 2020 with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials both in Australia and overseas.
The court heard he would use the encrypted app WeChat to communicate with people he believed to be operatives of the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
Maidment said in June 2020, Duong presented then-federal minister Alan Tudge with a well-publicised $37,450 donation to the Royal Melbourne Hospital using funds from the Oceania Federation of Chinese Organisations, of which he was president.
The prosecution said it was Duong’s intention to solicit Tudge’s future help.
Duong appeared at a press conference held by then-minister Alan Tudge and presented a $37,450 cheque to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
“The purpose of that future conduct was to influence Mr Tudge, regarding the political or governmental process in Australia, to the advantage of the CCP,” Maidment said.
“You deliberately selected Mr Tudge as a target for future foreign interference offence … precisely because of Mr Tudge’s political power in Australian Liberal government.”
The court heard that Duong believed at the time that Tudge may become prime minister.
Three months later, Maidment noted Duong sought to further develop his relationship with the then minister when he wrote seeking his urgent assistance to get a travel exemption for a colleague coming from Vietnam amid pandemic restrictions.
The Oceania Federation and Duong’s involvement in other community organisations were used as a cover to hide his relationship with the CCP.
Among his contact with ministers, Duong also sent a list of policy suggestions to former Victorian attorney-general Robert Clark, but those, Maidment said, were vague, impractical and unlikely to be taken seriously.
There is no suggestion Tudge or Clark were implicated in the offending or acted improperly in their dealings with Duong.
A jury found Duong guilty in December of intentionally engaging in conduct, between April 30 and June 2, 2020, with the intention of preparing for or planning a foreign interference offence.
The court heard Duong had a long history of community service in Australia after immigrating to the country on a refugee visa in 1980, after fleeing the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
He spent time on a boat to Thailand with 600 others, which was attacked by pirates.
Once in Australia, he worked in the textile industry and joined the Liberty Party’s Richmond branch, where he remained president for 17 years. Duong ran unsuccessfully for parliament in 1996.
“I find your moral culpability is high and your selection of a serving federal cabinet member as object of your criminal intent, aimed as it was at the heart of the Australian government, amounts to a serious example of an inherently serious offence,” Maidment said.
He convicted Duong and sentenced him to two years and nine months jail, with a minimum of one year.