Brian Burston (NSW, United Australia Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to table three documents to better inform the Senate on matters I wish to bring to the Senate's and nation's attention.

Leave not granted.

Australia in recent times has experienced disturbing developments in the threats to the nation's security and to its political and economic independence. Our very democracy is challenged by Chinese state owned government companies that are systematically targeting every sector of our society for their own national interest and using unlimited funds to buy their way into Australian society. The Chinese communist government is in the process of taking over our culture. Nearly every one of the Chinese departments at our universities is funded by the communist government of China. If we follow the money, scholarships, research projects, student and lecture exchanges will all be used to ensure that the Australian view and the view given to the Australian government reflects the view of the Chinese government and what it is in its best interests, not ours.

Some courses at Sydney University are majority attended by Chinese nationals. The great learning assets of our nation have, in essence, been handed over to another power so they are no longer available to Australian students to the extent they used to be. Sydney University conducts graduation ceremonies in Beijing, awarding degrees and postgraduate degrees that in earlier times would have been awarded to Australian citizens. Money has been used as an effective tool to suppress our national conscience and deprive our children of their heritage. Even Event Cinemas over Christmas had 50 per cent or more of movies other than children's movies made in China with English subtitles.

The attack on our Australian way of life is deliberate and well-coordinated and well-funded by the Chinese government, a government that has no respect for our democratic institutions, including this parliament, or the sovereignty of the Australian people. We have seen the communist government of China thumb its nose at the International Court of Justice and continue to expand and militarise the South China Sea. Justice to the government of China means doing what you're told and doing what China wants. Indeed, every member of this parliament has at one time or another been subject to lobbying by individuals paid and recruited by the Chinese government controlled companies in Australia to do their bidding.

Millions of Chinese citizens suffer and do not enjoy the basic freedoms we enjoy in Australia, because of the repressive and undemocratic practices of the communist government of China. China should not have those principles, and members of the Australian parliament should not do the bidding of a foreign power. Last year in this place we saw how a Labor member of parliament was having his expenses paid by Chinese government owned companies and how that senator was quick to support Chinese government expansion in the South China Sea. Likewise, a Liberal minister was quick to endorse a Chinese company's takeover of Darwin Port and then accept a job paying over $800,000 a year as an executive of that company. Thirty pieces of silver is all that it takes to buy Australian sovereignty. In my home state of New South Wales, Chinese interests have now acquired rights to the Port of Newcastle.

I must warn all Australians of the serious threat they face to their sovereignty and freedom by the failure of our elected leaders to protect and defend our nation. I am particularly concerned about the Western Australian Labor government and Liberal opposition teaming up—in particular, their increasing camaraderie with Chinese state owned enterprises that seek control of Australian property and critical infrastructure. Make no mistake: this is a matter of national security and alarming for all Australians.

Recently we've seen Western Australian Labor MP and upper house whip, Pierre Yang, being forced to resign from organisations affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. These Chinese communist government organisations are dedicated to extending Chinese communist government influence in Australia and supporting the establishment of Chinese government military bases in the South China Sea. Mr Yang also spent several months on a Chinese government ship searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Was this a vessel spying on the Australian military? I ask that because it spent little time in the actual search zone.

China's relentless pursuit of Australian politicians is worrying for anyone who values our nation's democratic freedom and sovereignty. It was reported in The Australian that Mr Yang's political mentor, Edward Zhang, is a member of several Chinese based organisations that are run by the Chinese Communist Party. Western Australian Labor Premier Mark McGowan and the Liberal Party opposition leader in the Western Australian state parliament recently attended a gala dinner hosted by Mr Zhang. Both the Labor Party and the Liberal Party have received large donations from Chinese government associates in the past.

Labor Premier McGowan, at the instigation of Mr Yang, recently visited China in Mr Yang's company to meet members of the Chinese government. Following the Premier's meeting with the Chinese government, Labor Premier McGowan announced in state parliament that he was prepared to change state legislation which guaranteed Australian company Mineralogy rights in the Pilbara to, in essence, favour China's biggest conglomerate, the Chinese government owned CITIC Limited. Such a move would result, if legal, in the Chinese government's subsidiaries controlling the $5 billion port facility at Cape Preston in the Pilbara which has been established on Mineralogy leases.

Further, despite the existence of an airstrip at Karratha, which is used by BHP, Woodside Energy and other mining companies, Chinese government owned companies, under a cloak of secrecy, have built an international-standard airstrip capable of landing jets. This is part of China's strategy to control all approaches by land, sea and air to the port at Cape Preston. Chinese government control of Australian ports and airports is a matter of national security for all Australians. No Australian could control a port in China or build a private airport in China capable of landing and operating fighter jets and bombers. Even Pig Iron Bob Menzies would not have allowed the Japanese to establish a naval base and airport on the Australian mainland prior to World War II.

The Western Australian Labor government is favouring Chinese government interests over the rights of Australians and Australian national security. Either Western Australian Labor Premier McGowan is so naive that he is blind to the stealth of their approach or he is too weak to challenge them and stand up for Australia. The United Australia Party will, after the next federal election, in this place move to establish a Senate committee to inquire into the role played by Chinese government owned companies in our economy that threaten Australia's security.

In August 2018, the Australian government disqualified Chinese owned tech giant Huawei from taking part in the rollout of 5G mobile infrastructure due to growing national security concerns. Soon afterwards, our government blocked the $13 billion sale of Australian owned energy company APA to Cheung Kong Infrastructure, or CKI. APA owns a $20 billion 15-kilometre-pipeline network which delivers natural gas to 1.3 million Australian homes and businesses. The sale would have given CKI and another Chinese state owned company ownership of 100 per cent of gas transmission pipelines in New South Wales and the ACT, 99 per cent in Victoria, 86 per cent in South Australia, 78 per cent in Queensland, 74 per cent in the Northern Territory and 65 per cent in Western Australia. The sale was blocked because it was contrary to the national interest. Why, then, is it deemed acceptable to allow Chinese government owned corporations to control major infrastructure and exert an unhealthy influence over an Australian state government and Australian politicians? The government's role should be to protect the Australian people and put Australia first. Anything less is an act of treason. The Anzacs put Australia first. It's time this parliament does.