Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Accountability) | Hansard source

He has made himself useful to another government. It's not that he's been ignorant of Ms Liu. Let me tell you a story from a Victorian Liberal Party fundraiser from when the Prime Minister was the Treasurer. They were at a function and there were questions afterward. Mr Morrison had given a speech, presumably about what an excellent economic manager he's turned out to be—doubling federal government debt to more than half a trillion dollars, stagnating wages et cetera. So he'd given a speech about that. Then there was a question and answer component to the evening, and Ms Liu was there. Ms Liu repeated the Chinese Communist Party line on the South China Sea and asked Mr Morrison to validate that line. Mr Morrison afterwards asked the organisers of the function: 'Oh, is Gladys now the member for Chisholm? Is Gladys a member of the CCP?' Of course, he was only half joking. So Mr Morrison cannot claim ignorance about Ms Liu. He has known for a very long time about her disposition on these matters. But, of course—and I will come to this—Ms Liu offers something that is actually quite rare in political parties, and that is the ability to raise a lot of money. There is a real problem in that.

As Prime Minister, one of Mr Morrison's main purposes—other than ensuring national prosperity, which, as we can see he has totally and abysmally failed at—is to ensure national security. He sees everything through the prism of a party political prank. As the Australian Prime Minister, he has no higher duty than being our representative, and that includes representing and communicating the values of our system to the nation and to the world. He has proven himself incapable of doing so. Mr Morrison's being praised by that particular publication, the Global Times, is a prize he will wear like a crown of thorns. On social media he is now being denounced as ScoMao. He is being denounced at ScoMao by Australians who are gravely concerned by his handling of Ms Liu. No wonder the Liberals don't want her to explain herself in the chamber. Mr Morrison is highly experienced—I was going to say that Mr Morrison is often referred to as 'the liar from the shire', but I won't, and I'll withdraw that immediately.