It's not newsworthy until biased right wing news runs with the story? In this case the infiltration of Australian Politics by China, the latest being the case of the Liberal Member for Chisholm, Gladys Liu and her alleged fraudulant manipulation of the Chinese voters in Chisholm.
Most rational Australians have been well aware of the Chinese influence from the days of Hawke/Keating onwards.
Locally in Western Victoria / Eastern SA the collapsed 40,000 dairy cattle in the desert brokered by Ex PM Hawke being the last publicised joke!
I don't know enough about Australian politics to to comment on it.
However from the perspective of an outsider, the literally world wide hysteria concerning Gladys Liu after only 3 months in office and the incredulity that a Hong Kong national could be fairly elected to office in Australia does perhaps appear to smack of knee jerk ethnocentrism.