Australian MP Gladys Liu accused of failing to declare US$30,000 donation as scandal over Chinese links grows

Australia’s Labor Party has renewed calls for Liberal MP Gladys Liu to explain links to Chinese associations despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison labelling the tactic “grubby”.

On Friday the controversy around the member for Chisholm grew after the Herald Sun reported that Liu had failed to file a return declaring a A$39,675 (US$29,500) donation to the Victorian Liberal party in 2015-16.

Liu is under fire for failing to disclose her membership of Chinese government-linked associations before her preselection to the Liberal party.

On Thursday the former president of the Victorian Liberal party, Michael Kroger, rejected suggestions the party had been warned by security agencies that it would be “unwise” for her to run for parliament.

The former Labor foreign minister and now chancellor of the Australian National University, Gareth Evans, has also criticised the level and tone of media coverage around the issue, describing it as a symptom of “hyper-anxiety” about China.

Evans told the Asian-Australian Leadership Summit on Thursday that the “bamboo ceiling” limiting the rise of Asian-Australians to positions of power is real, and the “saturation coverage in the media this week” is a reminder of obstacles faced by Chinese-Australians in particular.

“The current environment of hyper-anxiety in some quarters about baleful Chinese, and particularly Chinese Communist Party, influence is making it harder than it has ever been for Chinese-Australians to aspire to leadership positions, or indeed any position at all in fields that are seen as even remotely security-sensitive, not least in the public service,” he said.

“It is an environment that bears no relationship to the objective evidence we have that such influence as has been sought, in our universities, politics, public administration and elsewhere, has been of a minimal and marginal nature.

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“And it is one which utterly misrepresents the reality of the overriding loyalty which Chinese-Australians have always had to this country and will continue to have. It’s an environment of anxiety and fear that has to stop, and stop fast, or we will all be diminished by it.”

On Friday, the shadow attorney general Mark Dreyfus told Radio National “the only person linking these serious concerns to the whole Chinese-Australian community is Scott Morrison”.

When asked about Evans’ comments, Dreyfus noted that Labor’s leader in the senate is Penny Wong, rejecting suggestions the opposition’s attack has broader implications for the Chinese-Australian community.

Dreyfus said Morrison hoped to “hurl a false, disgraceful allegation of racism” to avoid scrutiny on the issue.

“Every day this scandal deepens and there are more revelations – the [prime minister] can stop this and he should stop this by coming into the parliament and making an explanation, and so too should the recently elected member for Chisholm, Gladys Liu.”

Dreyfus noted that although Kroger had denied receiving a security briefing about Liu, Morrison had refused to do the same, which raised the question whether he had “put his party interests in winning a marginal seat ahead of the national interest”.

Dreyfus said Liu is yet to explain which organisations she was a member of, what she did for them, if and when she resigned from them.

The Victorian Liberal party’s annual return to the Australian Electoral Commission for 2015-16 declares a A$39,675 donation from Liu, who was required to file her own return disclosing the donation.

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The Herald Sun reported the money was for a A$24,175 (US$18,000) auction item at a fundraiser and a separate A$15,500 donation to the party, and follows a similar lapse of failing to declare a A$25,000 donation in 2014 for three years.

Liu’s alleged ties to the propaganda machine linked to the Chinese government were first reported by the ABC, which revealed a Chinese government online record listed her name as a council member of the Guangdong provincial chapter of the China Overseas Exchange Association between 2003 and 2015.

The association was an arm of the Chinese government’s central political and administrative body, and has since been merged with the Communist Party’s propaganda arm, the United Front Work Department.

The controversy was sparked by a Sky News interview in which Liu said she could not recall if she was a member of the group and struggled to answer questions about China’s activities in the South China Sea.

Dreyfus argued that when Labor’s Sam Dastyari failed to back the bipartisan position on the South China Sea, Morrison had accused him of betraying Australia.

On Thursday Morrison accused Labor of mudslinging, and suggested the opposition was “casting a smear on Chinese-Australians”.

“[Dreyfus] should take a good hard look at himself and he should have a good hard look at the 1.2 million Australians who will see exactly what he is doing to Australians of Chinese descent,” the prime minister said. “Just because someone was born in China doesn’t make them disloyal.”