Senator Stands by ‘Chinese Spies’ Concerns, Criticises Labor for Weaponising Comments

Jane Hume said her comments were genuine concerns about foreign interference in Australia’s federal election.

Former Opposition Leader Peter Dutton meets with Chinese community leaders alongside Katie Allen, the Liberal candidate for the Division of Chisholm in Glen Waverley, Melbourne, in Australia on April 30, 2025. Dan Peled/Getty Images

Liberal Senator Jane Hume has defended her “Chinese spies” comments in the lead-up to the May 3 election day, criticising the Labor Party for weaponising it.

A week before election day, Hume made headlines when she claimed “Chinese spies” were handing out flyers for Labor Housing Minister Clare O’Neil.

The interview occurred amid reports that two Chinese volunteers had been encouraged to support Teal MP for Kooyong Monique Ryan by a CCP-linked community group.

The incident was referred to the Australian Electoral Commission.

Meanwhile, Labor candidates, including Foreign Minister Penny Wong, sought to capitalise on Hume’s comments to appeal to Chinese-Australian voters.

Just a few days before the election day, Wong ran a campaign on China-based social media apps like WeChat and RedNote to tell Chinese voters that the Liberal Party was questioning their loyalty to Australia.

While it is unclear how effective Labor’s campaign was, the party made gains across seats with high Chinese population numbers.

Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume during a doorstop in the media gallery at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on March 18, 2021. Sam Mooy/Getty Images

Hume Criticises Labor for Weaponising Her Comments

During an interview with Sky News Australia, Hume said her previous remarks—while not clearly articulated—were supposed to be genuine concerns about external interference in the election.

“Let’s be clear what the issue there was, is, there was a suspicion by the Australian electoral integrity taskforce of foreign interference in our electoral system,” she said.

“It wasn’t something that they could so easily dismiss, and instead, [Labor] turned it into a scare campaign against Liberals. I find that a little bit disturbing,” she said.

“I’ll be very interested to see what that electoral integrity assurance taskforce comes up with because the last thing we want is that for election results to be influenced by non-Australians, by organisations, wherever they may be, state actors outside of the country,” she said.

This was not the first time that a political leader has raised eyebrows with confusing rhetoric about the Chinese community.

In 2019, then-state Labor Opposition Leader Michael Daley said “young people from typically Asia with PhDs” were taking the jobs of young Australians, which stirred a strong response from fellow MPs with Asian backgrounds.

People drop their vote into the voting box at Kew Primary School in Melbourne, Australia, on May 03, 2025. Morgan Hancock/Getty Images

Liberal Party Did Not Counteract Labor’s Campaign

At the same time, Senator Hume reflected on the Liberals’ election loss, and said they did not do enough to counter Labor’s scare campaigns.

“We know that there were plenty of scare campaigns out there, and some of those we simply didn’t counter well enough,” she said.

The senator said a voter told her she would not vote for the Liberals because she was bombarded with information saying Liberals would cut penalty rates.

“There were subterranean campaigns going on throughout this entire election campaign that we couldn’t counter because we didn’t see them coming.

“So that’s going to be one of the big reflections, I think, on policy development.”