A Chinese former executive at Tourism Australia has admitted billing taxpayers $49,000 for personal business class flights to China and falsifying documents to get her cousin a business visa.
Quan Liu, 50, who went by Christine Liu while working as chief financial officer at the government agency, appeared at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday.
She pleaded guilty to six counts of “dishonestly intend to obtain a gain”, and one count each of “deliver documents containing false statement” and “abuse public office to gain advantage”, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The court heard Liu used more than $49,000 in public funds to buy six business class flights to China over a 14 month period in 2022 and 2023 to visit her parents, who were suffering from Covid.
She also used a misleading visa letter to support claims her trips were work-related, and falsified a Tourism Australia letter to support her cousin’s visa application after he was denied a tourist visa.
Crown prosecutor Richard Dixon told the court Liu had abused her extremely senior position, and noted she had admitted to police she was not under “financial pressure”.
“It’s quite stupid of me to go through all this ticketing with Tourism Australia because, like you said, I could’ve just paid for my own tickets,” she said in a police interview, Mr Dixon told the court.
Mr Dixon said the forged letter submitted for her cousin’s visa application “was to make it appear like her cousin had the imprimatur of Tourism Australia”.
“It said Tourism Australia had organised a site inspection tour, enabling the recipient of the letter to meet anyone in the travel industry,” he told the court.
“This letter was held out as an undertaking by the Australian Government to host this gentleman, essentially at all expenses.
“The purpose of submitting this application on behalf of [her cousin] was to undermine the decision that had previously been made by the Australian Government.”
Liu’s lawyer told the court that Covid had affected her client’s mental, as had looking after her sick parents in China, saying “her judgement would have been very clouded at the time”, and that “this is not a clear-eyed, calculated course of conduct committed for financial gain”.
She also told the court Liu was fired from her Tourism Australia role, forced to resign from her CFO role at maritime company Polaris and Marine, and had reimbursed all of the money.
Liu’s sentencing was adjourned until November 6.
Header image: Christine Liu at a Senate hearing in 2022 (Parliament of Australia).
