Face of Nation : Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has moved to quell security concerns about embattled Liberal MP Gladys Liu, saying he and Scott Morrison would not be backing her if she was a problem.
More revelations about the Chinese Communist Party-linked groups Ms Liu was a former member of have come to light since the Prime Minister labelled attacks against her a “grubby smear” on all Chinese Australians.
Mr Dutton on Friday said he was limited by what he could reveal about Ms Liu’s security status by laws governing intelligence agencies, but stated he would not be supporting her if he thought she was a security risk.
“As Home Affairs Minister with responsibility for ASIO and AFP I’m at a disadvantage, because if I received a briefing from the (ASIO) director general on Richard (Marles) or on Gladys or anyone else, it is not something I would ever comment on,” he told the Nine Network.
“During the week it was clear to me that there was no smoking gun from Labor, no substance to their attacks … she’s resigned from some of these organisations, if there’s an issue here. “If the Prime Minister or I had concerns about Gladys Liu, we wouldn’t be backing her the way we are.”
The Australian revealed on Friday that one of the CCP-linked groups Ms Liu was a past member of was tied to Beijing’s controversial Belt and Road initiative. The group organised camps that at least 28 Melbourne children were invited to attend.
Other reports have emerged that Ms Liu did not declare her membership of CCP-linked groups during her Liberal Party preselection and that she failed to register a donation of more than $30,000.
Ms Liu was reduced to tears in parliament on Thursday as Mr Morrison fought off Labor attacks and linked the allegations against her to controversial comments ex-NSW ALP leader Michael Daley made about Asian student taking young Sydneysiders’ jobs.
Labor deputy leader Richard Marles denied that the Opposition’s questions had any hint of Sinophobia and called on Mr Morrison to address the concerns around Ms Liu.
“There is an iconic status associated with her. She is the first member of the Australian- Chinese community to be in the House of Representatives. We get the significance of that,” Mr Marles said. “But that doesn’t excuse her or any of us, you or I, Peter, from having to hold ourselves to account, which comes with being in the House of Representatives. “The only person who has put Gladys Liu’s ethnicity into the frame here is the Prime Minister.”
Anthony Albanese — who is visiting New Zealand — said the Opposition was only raising “legitimate questions” about Ms Liu’s links to China, and claimed it was forces within the Victorian Liberal Party that were behind the recent allegations.
“Labor has got to able to raise questions in the parliament,” the Opposition Leader said on Friday. “Had we not have raised questions in the parliament, there would have indeed been questions on why that hadn’t occurred since it was on the front page of every newspaper.
