Fears Cambodian operatives in Aust: Labor

Cambodian-Australians are living in fear of a local organisation they believe is spying on them for the Cambodian government, parliament has heard.

Labor MP Mark Butler revealed on Tuesday night that members of his Port Adelaide electorate believe the Cambodian Cultural Association is a local front for the country's leader Hun Sen.

"The Cambodian community in Adelaide have expressed to me their fear of the infiltration of CPP operatives and Hun Sen allies here in Australia," he said.

Mr Butler told parliament Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People's Party had acted to shut down democracy in the Asian nation ahead of next month's general election and was acting as a dictatorship.

He claimed the association, incorporated last year, had not been present at any cultural events, did not have a website and had just five posts on its Facebook page.

Membership of the group is guarded by bribery and threats against families still in Cambodia, he said community members reported to him.

Mr Butler said many who attended protests against Hun Sen's attendance at the ASEAN summit in Sydney in March were worried they or family still in Cambodia would be arrested and of Hun Sen's threats that he would "follow them home".

"Hun Sen has frozen democracy and obliterated due process in Cambodia," he said, calling on Australia to protect the commitment to improve democracy in Cambodia as agreed in the Paris Peace Accord in 1991.