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Former Liberal Bennelong candidate Scott Yung owes the party more than $400,000 after running up a significant debt during the federal election campaign – a figure that will leave the battleground seat in a financial hole ahead of the next election.
While telling people he plans to run again, Yung had not “repaid a cent” despite repeated entreaties from Liberal headquarters and party luminaries asking him to do so, according to two senior Liberal sources not authorised to speak publicly on party matters. The debt owed to the party by conferences, including Bennelong, was raised during a meeting of the federal electoral conference treasurers last Wednesday.
“No one has racked up a debt of this size and refused to pay it back,” a Liberal source said.
Liberal candidates sign a mandatory financial agreement before elections, setting out expectations they will repay campaign expenses incurred locally – outside of spending approved and managed by the party’s headquarters – that are not recouped through donations.
Yung unsuccessfully challenged Labor MP Jerome Laxale in the northern Sydney seat at last May’s election. Touted as one of the party’s great hopes, his campaign faced numerous scandals, including admitting he falsely claimed he raised $60,000 during a fundraiser with former prime minister John Howard ahead of the 2019 state election.
Two senior sources familiar with financial arrangements said the amount owed by Yung was between $400,000 and $450,000. One source said the 33-year-old’s promises to hand over tens of thousands of dollars by certain dates had not materialised.
There is concern allowing Yung to walk away from the debt would set a bad precedent for future candidates.
One party figure said the level of debt across conferences was compounding the financial issues Liberal HQ faced before the Farrer byelection, and the 2027 state election.
Yung declined to comment. A NSW Liberal spokesman said: “The party does not publicly discuss the details of its financial dealings with candidates or conferences.”
Bennelong is not the only conference with debts owed to the party. The seat of Paterson was estimated by one senior source to be about $350,000 in debt, although another source said the exact amount was difficult to determine. The seats of Reid, in Sydney’s inner suburbs, and Eden-Monaro, in the state’s south, were also in the red.
Yung’s campaign spending included a blimp with the candidate’s face on it, along with additional billboards beyond what Liberal headquarters had paid for.
The seat of Bennelong, once held by Howard, also spent more than $150,000 in advertising on Meta, according to the company’s data.
The spending in Bennelong was compounded by limited fundraising, a Liberal source said. This included selling seats at a private dinner with then-Liberal leader Peter Dutton, who had no availability until after the campaign. The event did not proceed, a source said.
Liberal insiders, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations, said Yung was telling people he intended to run again. Two sources said that would be impossible if he did not repay those funds.
If the debt was not addressed, the next Bennelong candidate would begin the coming federal election campaign with a financial hole of about $450,000, a source said.
There was no willingness within Liberal HQ to pursue Yung legally for the funds, a senior source said, given his age and that he worked in his family’s tutoring business.
But there was frustration that Yung was leveraging his status as a former Liberal candidate on appearances on Sky After Dark programs to boost his profile. Yung regularly reposts the clips on his Instagram, garnering tens of thousands of views.
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