Jing Shyuan Lee (born 12 June 1967) is a Malaysian-Australian politician elected to the

South Australian Legislative Council The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the South Australian House of Assembly, H ...

for the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia since the 2010 state election. She quit the Liberal Party on 10 January 2025. She was formerly the president of the Asia Pacific Business Council for Women.

Early life

After completing primary school in 1979, Lee emigrated from Malaysia to South Australia. During her first years in Australia, she joined an English language program and entered into the public school system. After graduating from high school, she attended the

University of South Australia The University of South Australia is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1991, it is the successor of the former South Australian Institute of Technology. Its main campuses along North Terrace are ...

where she studied business management.

Political career

Lee ran as the fourth candidate on the Liberal ticket in the

at the 2010 state election. She was elected to the Legislative Council on the back of a 39.4 percent Liberal primary vote. Since entering Parliament, Lee has taken the role of deputy whip of the opposition in the Legislative Council. She is a member of the Social Development parliamentary community. In December 2011, she was promoted to Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business by Isobel Redmond. In August 2020, Lee's connections to the Xinjiang Association of South Australia, an organisation that has denied the existence of a Uyghur genocide and works closely with the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China is the first-ranked Ministries of the People's Republic of China, executive department of the State Council of China, responsible for the country's Foreign relations of China, f ...

, were reported. Following the reports, photos of Lee at the association events were removed from her social media accounts and some federal MPs in her party called for an investigation into Lee's reported links to the

Chinese government The government of the People's Republic of China is based on a system of people's congress within the parameters of a Unitary state, unitary communist state, in which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enacts its policies through people's ...

on national security grounds. In September 2020, Lee was selected by the Liberal Party as its preferred candidate to become

president of the South Australian Legislative Council The President of the South Australian Legislative Council is the presiding officer of the South Australian Legislative Council, the upper house of the Parliament of South Australia. The other presiding officer is the speaker of the South Australia ...

, where the party did not have a majority. Fellow Liberal John Dawkins also nominated for the role and was elected by the council, and consequently expelled from the Liberal Party. On 10 January 2025, Lee resigned from the South Australian Liberal Party.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Jing Members of the South Australian Legislative Council 1967 births Living people Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of South Australia University of South Australia alumni 21st-century Australian politicians Malaysian emigrants to Australia Australian people of Chinese descent Women members of the South Australian Legislative Council 21st-century Australian women politicians Australian politicians of Asian descent