The Hong Kong-born wife of the Opposition spokesman for migrant services and multicultural affairs co-owns a migration agency that boasts about getting tens of thousands of visas.
Liberal MP Jason Wood declared his wife Judy Cheung-Wood was a director and owned shares in Melbourne-based company Ferntree Migration, four months after Australian Securities and Investments Commission files were updated to show she owns a 50% stake, The Age reported.
Former Victorian state Liberal MP-turned immigration lawyer Cathrine Burnett-Wake is the other co-owner, and features prominently on the firm’s website and social media pages.
Ferntree Migration promotes itself as able to overturn visa refusals, help clients get student visas in record time, and negotiate the tribunal process, stating on its website it has helped get more than 23,400 visas approved, and “changed the lives” of over 77,900 people.
A Liberal Party spokesman said Mr Wood, who was hounded out of a mosque in Melbourne on Monday evening, had no involvement in the business, no conflict of interest, and submitted the update about his wife’s directorship and shareholding in accordance with the rules.
“Mr Wood’s wife’s business dealings are a matter for her, and he does not involve himself in the business,” the spokesperson said.
“At all times, Mr Wood has complied with his obligations as a member of parliament and a member for the Dutton shadow ministry. Any conflict of interest would be managed in the appropriate way in a Dutton government.”
The footage of La Trobe MP Jason Wood being heckled out of a Mosque today is an absolute classic in the ‘Liberal MP ethnic cosplay’ genre. pic.twitter.com/XXYKHIDJ0h
— John Macgowan (@john_macgowan) March 31, 2025
Both Opposition leader Peter Dutton and Mr Wood have been critical of the Labor government’s failure to control foreign student numbers or stop them using the appeals process to stay in Australia.
But Mr Wood has also been vocal defender of migration agents, which Labor has claimed are rorting the system.
“The government has a deeply offensive and divisive false narrative that the growth in international students is basically driven by shonks or crooks. It is not that at all,” Mr Wood said in parliament.
“There are immigration agents and education agents who’ve come to me who have been put under great stress and have even threatened to have their business closed down.”
And although Mr Dutton has promised to cut permanent migration by 25%, he has made no commitments to cut overall immigration or reduce the number of international students in Australia, even after 200,000 arrived in February alone.
Mr Dutton is also on record saying he wants higher numbers of Indian migrants, promised a migration agent he would look at bringing back a controversial “golden visa” used by wealthy immigrants to purchase permanent residency, and bragged about how many migrants arrived under his watch.
The Opposition leader initially supported Labor’s efforts to impose a cap on foreign students, but backflipped at the last minute, just a day after his immigration spokesperson dined with migration and education agents in Sydney.
Mr Wood, a former Victoria Police officer, was heckled, abused and threatened with violence by Muslim men at the Afghan Islamic Centre in Dandenong earlier this week while wearing a turban and striped robe.
He regularly panders to immigrant voters by turning up at multicultural events wearing turbans and flower garlands and eating ethnic foods, and visited Melbourne’s new Ramadan night market on Friday night.
Header image: Left, Mr Wood and his wife. Right, Mr Wood bowing an Indian at a Hindu temple in Sydney last month (Facebook).
