James Campbell: Scott Morrison’s defence of Gladys Liu shouldn’t fill anyone with confidence

In Scott Morrison’s defence of Gladys Liu, he made a backhanded admission that some citizens vote on Chinese, rather than mainstream Australian issues — which doesn’t exactly fill anyone with confidence, writes James Campbell.

Whether Scott Morrison has made a wise choice in playing the racism card over the trouble swirling around the MP for Chisholm Gladys Liu will only become clear with time.

What is not in doubt is that he has slammed it down hard on the table.

Asked if he had ever received security briefings on Liu, the Prime Minister said Mark Dreyfus, Labor’s shadow attorney-general needed to have a long hard look at himself.

“He should also,” he continued “have a good hard look at the 1.2 million Australians who will see exactly what he is doing to Australians of Chinese descent” because “just because someone was born in China doesn’t make them disloyal.”

Well, no it doesn’t.

But no one ever suggested it did.

Liberal backbencher Gladys Liu is under mounting pressure over her links to the Chinese Communist Party.

What is in question here is not every Chinese person in Australia but one person, Gladys Liu, and what her membership of several years standing of a number of organisations controlled by Beijing, says about her.

Taunting Labor that it will risk electoral retribution from more than a million Chinese-Australians, if it is seen as having Liu’s political blood on its hands, is at once a slur on them and itself a backhanded admission that these citizens vote on Chinese, rather than mainstream Australian issues.

Frankly I reckon you’d struggle to come up with a better argument that we have a massive problem in our midst.

Moreover, how is his suggestion that in pursuing Liu, Labor is in danger of moving these 1.2 million people into his column, supposed to make the rest of us feel?

Prime Minister Scott Morrison staunchly defended Liu.

The idea that electoral issues are front of mind on this stuff doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence.

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Be all that as it may, Morrison has made his decision that he is going to stand behind this “great Australian”. And the stories keep piling up.

Today the Herald Sun reveals another pro-Beijing organisation that Liu seems to have forgotten she was ever a member of, despite bringing it up unprompted in an interview in late July.

Then there’s the $25,000 she donated to the Liberal Party in 2014/15 financial that for some reason she took three years to declare.

There’s also the $39,000 she still hasn’t told the AEC about.

Both interesting omissions by any stretch of the imagination.

The question everyone in Canberra is asking, is, is there any more to come? Like the wisdom of Scott Morrison’s decision to play the race card, this is a question that can only be answered with time.