Scott Morrison today attempted to dismiss growing concerns over Member for Chisholm Gladys Liu as partisan fire directed by the Labor Opposition at a “clumsy interview” she gave to Andrew Bolt on Tuesday. But given its national security implications, this is one matter the prime minister is unlikely to skate over.

Certainly, much of the media commentary since has exaggerated Liu’s position on what the Permanent Court of Arbitration and Australia describe as China’s theft of the South China Sea. Asked by Bolt, “Do you support the [Australian] government’s position, that China stealing the South China Sea is unlawful?”, Liu replied: “Well, my understanding is [that] a lot of countries [are] trying to claim ownership… sovereignty of the South China Sea because of various reasons, and my position is with the Australian government.”

Much more concerning was the consistency with which Liu claimed that she could not recall her various reported connections with organisations closely linked with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, one of whose tasks, according to Professor Clive Hamilton, is “to co-opt and guide ethnic Chinese people living abroad so they act in the interests of the Communist Party”. (The publication of Hamilton’s book, Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, was delayed in 2017 after its publishers expressed fears of Chinese retaliation.) Liu’s memory returned the following morning in the form of a written statement apparently prepared by Morrison’s office, which confirmed her honorary membership, between 2003 and 2015, of a CCP-linked association.

In damage control yesterday and today, the government has tried to reduce the issue to one of partisan politics and racial slurs. In a press conference this morning, the prime minister suggested that Labor’s pursuit of the matter was “an insult to every Chinese Australian in this country”. That provoked an extraordinary intervention by Bolt himself, who asked: “are the dictators in Beijing now writing Morrison’s lines?”

There are many reasons Morrison wants this to go away. Liu won Chisholm by the barest of margins – 1090 votes – in May. By asking whether Liu is a “fit and proper person” to sit in Canberra, Labor raises the spectre of the Constitution’s section 44 – which is, after all, supposed to guard against divided loyalties. Should Labor force Liu’s exit and triumph in a byelection, the Coalition’s majority would be reduced to a very precarious one.

This issue goes well beyond mere partisan politics, however. In February 2018, ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis reportedly advised the then PM, Malcolm Turnbull, to avoid a “meet and greet” organised by Liu because of his concerns about her guest list. Two state Liberal parliamentarians and a former senior staffer are reported to have told the Herald Sun [$] that the party had been warned in 2018 about pre-selecting her. Penny Wong and Mark Dreyfus are asking whether Morrison and his party “put winning marginal seats ahead of Australia’s national security”.

All five crossbenchers present this morning (Bob Katter was absent) voted in favour of Labor’s motion to suspend standing orders in order to force some kind explanation from Liu or Morrison, with the Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie urging the government against using its numbers to run “a protection racket”.

The uncomfortable reality is that many Australian federal and state politicians have been courted by CCP-linked associations. Former treasurer Chris Bowen took [$] a CCP-funded trip to China in April 2015. ICAC is currently investigating allegations that NSW Labor accepted $100,000 in an Aldi bag from a banned Chinese donor. Bob Hawke made a fortune as a lobbyist for Chinese companies during the decade-long negotiations for the China–Australia Free Trade Agreement, finalised in 2014. Peter Dutton and Bill Shorten are among the many current and former politicians who have met with or received donations from individuals with alleged CCP links.

The national security implications – Duncan Lewis said last week that China’s influence represents an “existential threat” to Australia, more serious than terrorism or cybersecurity – mean the perennial issue of political donations must be revisited. More than that, there are calls today for a full review of how Australia engages with China.

---

GOOD OPINION Talking about it helps “I genuinely thought that my family would be better off without me, and that does show I wasn’t entirely level headed. I know that’s so far from the truth.” ABC NEWS Fifteen years since he wrote a suicide note to his family, and a decade since he coordinated the first R U OK? Day, Graeme Cowan encourages us all to talk about how we’re doing – and to invite others to do the same. Lifeline 13 11 14 BAD OPINION And the real victim here is…? “These people came by boat. It’s been made clear to them at every turn that they were not going to stay in Australia and they still had children. We see that overseas in other countries – anchor babies, so-called – and the emotion of trying to leverage a migration outcome based on the children.” NINE NEWS Peter Dutton during his regular love-in with 2GB’s Ray Hadley, trying and failing to turn the tide of public opinion against the Tamil family from Biloela. The Daddy Quota When Annabel Crabb decided to find out what happens to men’s work habits when they have children, she discovered a huge store of gendered norms and inequality. LISTEN NOW The Number 12 The age of Dujuan Hoosan, from Arrernte and Garrwa country, who on Wednesday urged the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva to help end the incarceration of Aboriginal children by Australian governments. GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA The Policy Sticking to 26% He’ll be in the US on September 23, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison won’t be at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. Instead, he will be visiting US president Donald Trump. A spokesperson said Australia is sticking firmly to its modest goal of cutting emissions by 26–28 per cent (from 2005 levels) by 2030. READ ON The list   VOX Mansuasion: Jane Austen as reviewed by men on Goodreads “Good god, Austen, I wish you had read Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindications of the Rights of Woman. Jane Austen may be the most cowardly writer I have ever read, and I know this because of her complete aversion to risk. I appreciate women didn’t have many options back in those days but this book was ridiculously boring.” THE MONTHLY FILM Girls, interrupted: Sophie Hyde’s ‘Animals’ “Maybe you can grow up without growing old, the movie posits, or vice versa – it’s entirely up to you. (And maybe spilling red wine on a newborn baby, as happens here, is – correctly – very funny, and not the low point of some drunken life spiral.)” THE MONTHLY SPORT The riddle of Nick Kyrgios “Denied a toilet break ‘emergency’ at the 2016 Rogers Cup, Kyrgios sought an overrule from a tournament official. Permission granted, Kyrgios returned to his seat, explaining that he ‘[didn’t] need to go anymore’ ... Kyrgios’s antics remind us that athletes aren’t just muscle and will; they are also bladder and ego. Human, all too human.”  THE SATURDAY PAPER