Alleged foreign interference by group linked to the Chinese Communist Party designed to produce hung parliament, Coalition claims
The Chinese Communist Party's alleged foreign interference in the federal election is designed to produce a hung parliament, a senior Coalition MP has claimed.
Australia's Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce is set to investigate allegations of foreign interference by a group that has been linked to the CCP's United Front Work Department.
Australia's election watchdog has confirmed it will refer allegations of foreign interference by the Hubei Association after it was revealed the group had planned to send out dozens of volunteers to campaign for Labor's Clare O'Neil and the Greens candidate for Menzies.
This followed an earlier referral involving Teal MP Monique Ryan, after footage emerged on social media showing two Chinese Australian volunteers wearing Monique Ryan campaign T-shirts.
When asked why they were supporting Ms Ryan, the female volunteer said the president of the Hubei Association, Ji Jianmin "required us Chinese diaspora to support her".
Speaking to Sky News Australia on Wednesday, shadow home affairs minister James Paterson said it was a good thing the taskforce – which includes ASIO, the AFP and the AEC – was taking up the issue, adding that the latest allegations were 'especially troubling'.
'It was bad enough already when we had Monique Ryan's campaign embroiled in this. It is even more serious that we now have a Labor campaign and also… a Greens campaign involved as well,' Senator Paterson told Sky News host Chris Kenny.
'It's especially surprising that Clare O'Neil has found herself caught up in this, because, as the former Minister for Home Affairs, no one in the Federal Parliament should better understand the risks of foreign interference than her.'
'But I have to say, I'm quite disappointed that when asked on breakfast TV this morning, Claire O'Neill was not able to say that she would refer it herself for investigation to that task force.'
Senator Paterson said he was not aware of any Hubei Association involvement in a Liberal Party campaign, but he cautioned against concluding that this meant the CCP wanted Anthony Albanese to be re-elected.
The shadow home affairs minister - who was previously chair of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security – suggested the goal may instead be to produce a hung parliament.
'What I can say… without getting into these specific examples, is if you were a foreign authoritarian government and you wanted to weaken or destabilise Australia, you would probably prefer that there be a hung parliament - that no party have a majority,' Senator Paterson said.
'In fact, there was leaked intelligence out of Canada, before… (the 2021) election, that one of the objectives of the Chinese Communist Party in Canada was to have a weak government, and they thought that would be best achieved by a parliament without any majority government.
'So I certainly think, in an uncertain and dangerous world, a strong majority government is much preferable to a hung parliament.
'And obviously, I would say I particularly wouldn't want to see an Albanese government re-elected in minority with the Teals and the Greens, because they do have dangerous views when it comes to national security and defence - they've attacked AUKUS, as just one example.'
Defence expert Michael Shoebridge said the allegations of foreign interference from the Chinese Communist Party were 'very credible'.
'We know that the Chinese Communist Party sees foreign interference, interference in other countries and democratic countries, as important,' Mr Shoebridge said.
'Xi Jinping has built his United Front Work Department as a magic weapon to do that, and he's got form. That's why we've got these new foreign interference laws.'
But the Director of Strategic Analysis Australia disagreed with Senator Paterson about the implications of the allegations, claiming it was hard to see any reason the CCP-linked groups had considered backing a Labor candidate other than they wanted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to win the election.
'The candidates they're not giving this support and help to look like candidates they don't want to win,' he said.
'It's hard to see another reason that these potentially Beijing-linked groups want to support particular candidates to get the vote out – and are allegedly directed to vote for particular candidates.'
Asked about the allegations on Tuesday, Ms Ryan admitted to having several meetings with the Hubei Association President but denied she had ever asked for his support directly.
"I've contacted the AEC and the Department of Parliamentary Services and given them the details about my relationship with those volunteers and with Mr Ji," she said on Tuesday.
Ms O'Neil also rejected claims she had asked for support from the group.
'I didn't make any requests for assistance from this organisation. The support was offered to my team, my team declined that support, and that was the end of the matter,' she said on Wednesday morning.
This is despite the Hubei President telling The Australian, through an interpreter, that the initial request for 10 volunteers had come from Ms O'Neil's office. Mr Ji also told The Australian his organisation had received a similar request for 10 volunteers from The Greens.
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