Scott Morrison slams Labor’s ‘racist’ Gladys Liu attack ad

Scott Morrison has accused the Labor Party of targeting Liberal MP Gladys Liu with “racist” attacks.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has accused the Labor Party of going after Liberal MP Gladys Liu just because she is a Chinese woman.

Ms Liu won the ultra marginal seat of Chisholm in Melbourne by less than 0.6 per cent in 2019 – now Labor are gunning to claim it back.

Labor released a scathing ad hitting out at Ms Liu, accusing her of spreading fake news and trying to trick voters.

“What do we know about Liberal Gladys Liu? She spread fake news on Chinese messaging apps,” the ad begins.

“She and the Liberal Party had to give back $300,000 because the donors were deemed a national security risk and her campaign tried to trick donors with election day signage in the colours of the Australian Electoral Commission.

“We need someone who represents Chisholm with hard work and integrity, not tricks. You deserve better than Scott Morrison and Gladys Liu.”

Scott Morrison and MP Gladys Liu in the Victorian suburb of Box Hill. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Morrison was asked about the ad on Sunday afternoon, with the Prime Minister branding the whole thing a “sewer tactic”.

“So we have a Labor Party whose deputy leader has been caught red handed, running his lines past the Chinese government before giving them,” he said, referring to a report in The Weekend Australian that Richard Marles gave the Chinese embassy a first look at a speech before delivering it in Beijing in 2019.

“And here we have a Labor Party who is attacking Australia and the Australian government, rather than calling out what the Chinese government has been doing in interference in our region. Instead, what do they do? They actually go after Gladys Liu because she’s Chinese. She’s from Hong Kong, and they’re engaged in what I think is a sewer tactic here.”

The Prime Minister brushed off a question over whether any of the claims in the ad were inaccurate, instead restating that it is a “desperate” tactic by Labor.

Labor is paying to run the ad across Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube.

Scott Morrison said it was a ‘desperate’ tactic by Labor. Picture: Jason Edwards

The $300,000 in donations referenced in the ad refers to a report by the Herald Sun from 2019, which claimed the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party returned the hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from guests invited to a Melbourne fundraiser by Ms Liu in 2015.

The publication claimed this occurred after former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was later told that some of the guests had been deemed security risks.

Labor claims Gladys Liu spread ‘fake news’ on Chinese messaging apps. Picture: Jason Edwards

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg also lashed out at the ad earlier in the day, branding the attack “racist”.

“[It is a] desperate, dishonest, racist attack ad by the Labor Party,” he told reporters in Melbourne.

Mr Frydenberg said Labor was being “deceitful”, accusing the party of engaging in “scare tactics” targeting the first Chinese-born person to sit in the House of Representatives.

“She is a proud Australian citizen and the racist attack ad by the Labor Party has no place in our community,” he said.

Posts about Gladys Liu shared by a Labor Party Facebook page. Picture: Facebook

A recent report from the ABC found an official Facebook page of a Labor Party Queensland branch had been sharing conspiracy theories about Ms Liu.

The page, Labor for Wright, is reportedly co-run by President of the Boonah branch, Julie Jackson.

One of the posts shared by the page alluded to a conspiracy theory that Ms Liu is a Chinese spy.

The post from April 19 showed a picture of Ms Liu and a screenshot of a tweet raising concerns about her connections to Nick Zhao, who claimed he was offered $1 million by a suspected Chinese spy to infiltrate the Australian government.

The phrase “I spy with my little eye” was added to the image.