Shorten takes to Wechat urging Barry O’Sullivan to apologise for ‘bloody old Chinaman’ comment

Bill Shorten takes to a popular Chinese social media app to condemn Nationals Senator Barry O’Sullivan’s “bloody old Chinaman” remark.

Bill Shorten urged Barry O’Sullivan to apologise to the Chinese Australian community “immediately” via Wechat. Picture: News Corp

Bill Shorten has condemned Nationals Senator Barry O’Sullivan’s “bloody old Chinaman” remark via a popular Chinese social media app, as Chinese Australian communities increasingly call for the senator to apologise.

The opposition’s response came after Multicultural leaders slammed Senator O’Sullivan’s comments in which he declared “some bloody old Chinaman with a sausage in his undies is more risk to Australia’s biosecurity than levy-paying importers”.

“I’m not opposed to a tax to raise money for biosecurity, but from those that pose a risk. So start with the Chinaman,” he also said at Tuesday’s hearing on the proposed Biosecurity Imports Levy.

In a statement published today on Wechat, Mr Shorten urged Mr O’Sullivan to apologise to the Chinese Australian community “immediately” and called for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to “show some leadership” and demand O’Sullivan apologise.

“These comments are offensive to the Chinese Australian community and they have no place in our society,” Shorten said.

“Modern Australia and multicultural Australia are the same thing. It seems the Conservative government is stuck in the past – at every turn they attack citizenship and multicultural Australia”.

It is the second statement Mr Shorten has made via his official account on WeChat to Chinese Australians in past two days following his response to the prolific amount of negative coverage of Labor’s medivac policy on the Mandarin-language platform.

Labor’s statement came after Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan condemned “Chinaman” as a “racially derogatory term”, which was “offensive and insulting to many Australians, including more than 1.2 million Australians of Chinese heritage”. The former lawyer tweeted that members of parliament “have a responsibility not to invoke this sort of language”.

Members of parliament have a responsibility not to invoke this sort of language. It’s offensive and insulting to many Australians, including more than 1.2 million Australians of Chinese heritage. https://t.co/HMu4t39qMu

— Chin Tan (@ChinTanRDC) February 19, 2019

“Your racist comment on Tuesday brought us back to the unfortunate memory of the White Australia policy and the era of racism against Chinese’, the peak advocacy body for the Chinese community in Australia, the Chinese Community Council of Australia told Senator O’Sullivan in a statement issued today.

“As a public figure who holds a Parliamentary position, your words will not only hurt the feeling of Australians of Chinese heritage but also can damage the reputation of your seat and the Party you represent,” the statement read.

“We expect a higher standard from you.”

The Australian can reveal that many Chinese Australians have written to the Senator’s office today and received an automatic email reply.

The Australian has sought comment from Senator O’Sullivan.