Treasurer slams Labor’s ‘racist’ ads attack on Hong Kong-born Liu

Josh Frydenberg has slammed an ALP advertisement targeting Hong Kong-born Liberal MP Gladys Liu over national security concerns as “racist” and a “scare campaign”.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg MP followed a press conference by playing some lawn bowls at Hawthorn Bowls Club on Sunday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Brendan Beckett

Josh Frydenberg has slammed a Labor advertisement targeting Hong Kong-born Liberal MP Gladys Liu over national security concerns as “racist” and a “scare campaign”.

Ms Liu holds the seat of Chisholm by a margin of less than 1 per cent, with Labor seeking to win it back with the concerted ad campaign against her.

The digital ad opens with the question “What do we know about Liberal Gladys Liu?”

“She spread fake news on Chinese messaging apps, 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 voters with election day signage in the colours of the Australian Electoral Commission,” the voice over goes on to say.

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

Gladys Liu during Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

The Treasurer said the ad was “a desperate, dishonest, racist ­attack ad by the Labor Party”.

“The Labor Party here is being dishonest, deceitful and engaging in scare tactics and in a racist attack ad on the first Chinese-born person to sit in the House of Representatives in Gladys Liu,” he told Sky News.

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

Malaysia-born Penny Wong defended the advertisement.

“You’re asking me that question (if it’s racist)?” she quipped.

“A number of these issues were raised a few years ago in the parliament, and I can remember, my-then counterpart, Senator (Mathias) Cormann, accusing me and others of attacking Ms Liu because of her heritage, which is not the case.

“I think they were questions that she should have answered. And it‘s legitimate for those to be answered.”

Labor pressed the government in 2019 over Ms Liu’s links to a Chinese agency.

It followed the uncovering of Chinese government records listing Ms Liu as a council member of the Overseas Exchange Association’s Guangdong provincial chapter between 2003 and 2015.

Ms Liu confirmed she had held a role with the association in 2011, but no longer had any ­association with it.

The government hosed down the concerns raised by Labor over whether Ms Liu was a “fit and proper” member of Australian parliament.

“The member for Chisholm is a strong advocate for her constituents and is a valued member of our team in this parliament,” then-finance minister Mr Cormann said in 2019.

“She has the government‘s full support.”

The official Facebook page of Labor’s Wright branch in Queensland also was this weekend found to be spreading a meme suggesting Ms Liu was a spy. “I spy with my little eye,” the caption accompanying a photo of Ms Liu said.