I remain far from convinced that Chinese-Australian politician Gladys Liu is some kind of devious fifth-columnist planted by the Beijing regime. But she does seem to be spectacularly cloth-eared and clueless.
You’d think that having had her feet held to the fire by Andrew Bolt over her (probably innocent) affiliations with Chinese “business associations” that appear to indeed be fronts for the Chinese Communists would have been an object lesson. Liu would surely have been well advised to keep a long, long distance from anything linked to the Chinese regime.
Controversial Liberal MP Gladys Liu has distanced herself from the Box Hill Police Station’s celebration of the 70th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party rule, despite cutting the cake at a 70th anniversary event held minutes later.
Face, meet palm.
The Australian published a photograph of Ms Liu cutting the cake, alongside local state Labor MP Paul Hamer — who raised the Chinese flag at the police station event — and Whitehorse Mayor Bill Bennett and local state Liberal MP Neil Angus, both of whom were also present at the police station.
Which is what should have been the real story. Instead, Liu’s cluelessness has her in the spotlight again, while people with some very real questions to answer quietly sidle away.
As reported on Thursday, Ms Liu’s office told The Australian she had skipped Tuesday’s police station event, but attended a subsequent event at which the cake was cut.
Ms Liu issued a statement on Friday saying reports she had attended the event at Box Hill Police Station were incorrect.
“The image being circulated alongside the report is from an event at the Town Hall hosted by a local business association,” Ms Liu said.
The second event was hosted by a Chinese business association at the Box Hill Town Hall, 150m from the police station.
The real issue should be: what were Victoria Police, apparently with the blessing of their bosses in the state government, doing, celebrating the brutal Chinese Communist party?
During the police station event, Mr Hamer accepted an invitation to raise the flag, alongside an Australian flag, during a ceremony which also featured the singing of the Chinese national anthem.
Asked whether it had been appropriate to raise the flag of a foreign nation whose ruling political regime is notorious for human rights abuses and censorship, Mr Hamer said: “I represent a strong multicultural electorate …”
[…]Pressed over whether it was appropriate for the sovereign flag of a foreign nation, representative of a political party notorious for human rights abuses and censorship, to be flown at a Victorian police station, Mr Ashton said the event had more to do with “local relationships” than a celebration of the Chinese Communist Party.
“Box Hill has a very high population of Chinese residents and businesses, particularly Chinese-owned businesses…” Mr Ashton said.
Locals, however, are not so sure about its appropriateness.
Local newspaper the Whitehorse Leader was contacted by residents who said they felt “very uncomfortable” about Victoria Police’s actions.
theaustralian.com.au/nation/victoria-police-commissioner-defends-flying-chinese-flag-at-box-hill
Meanwhile, the Morrison government is almost certainly going to have to tell clueless Gladys to pull her head in and have a better eye for the company she keeps.