Gladys Liu

Gladys Liu (born 6 April 1964) is a Hong Kong-born Australian politician, a Liberal Party member of the Australian House of Representatives representing the Division of Chisholm in Victoria since her election in May 2019. Born in Hong Kong, Liu was the first Chinese woman ever elected to the House, defeating the Australian Labor Party's Jennifer Yang.

Growing up in Hong Kong with six siblings, she often helped her parents run the family milk bar. Gladys' family is of Chaozhou heritage which she referenced in her inaugural address to Parliament after her election as MP. She studied at Belilios Public School, and attended Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She learnt to play the tromboneand joined the Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra. In 1985 Liu immigrated to Australia to study at La Trobe University. She started her career waiting tables at The Flower Drum Restaurant while studying. She studied Speech Pathology and is completely deaf in her left ear. She worked for the Victorian Education Department for 14 years providing support to students with speech impediments.With her father and husband she ran two restaurants and a pharmacy until her 2007 divorce. She has served as a government advisor for two Premiers of Victoria, served as Head of Business Development and Corporate Social Responsibility Advisor for Canaan Lawyers and President of Box Hill Chess Club. Her two children have attended Harvard and Oxford studying business.

She became an Australian citizen in April 1992. Under Chinese nationality law where dual nationality is not recognised, she was still considered a Chinese national in Hong Kong after 1 July 1997 unless a change of nationality was declared. In 2018 she formally declared a change of nationality to the Hong Kong immigration department of her Australian citizenship to which they issued formal recognition in September 2018.

Before entering Parliament, she was an advisor to former Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and Denis Napthine, and ran as a Liberal Party candidate for the South Eastern Metropolitan Region of the Victorian Legislative Council at the 2010 Victorian state election and for the Northern Metropolitan Region of the Victorian Legislative Council at the 2014 Victorian state election.

Views

Liu has campaigned against the controversial Safe Schools program as well as same-sex marriage, both of which were significant political issues in 2016.

In June 2019, Liu remained silent on the matter of the extradition bill introduced into the Hong Kong legislature in February 2019 which sparked the largest protest demonstrations ever seen in Hong Kong and an international outcry in opposition, disappointing members of the Hong Kong Chinese diaspora community in Australia. Yet, she lauded the protesters in her birthplace later in July.

In September 2019, it was reported that Liu and her Liberal Party branch called to relax foreign investment laws related to China.

Controversy

In 2019, media reports linked Liu to an external influence organization called the World Trade United Foundation, which has ties to the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China, representing interest groups of the Chinese Communist Party. Many of the World Trade United Foundation's members are also members of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In response to the reports, Liu claims to have left the World Trade United Foundation in 2016. Liu was also reported to have been a member of two other front organisations from 2003 to 2015 that were both later rolled into the United Front Work Department. Liu responded that she could not recall if she had been a member of the department over the 12 year period.

At the 2017 Victorian Liberal Party conference, the party's Eastern Multicultural Branch, of which Liu was president, proposed a motion that would make foreign investment in agribusiness and agricultural land permissible without prior approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board. Liu called public attitudes toward foreign investment "xenophobic," in unison with the prevalent Communist Party of China line.

Liu was also reported to have failed to disclose a $39,675 AUD donation to the Liberal Party of Australia during 2015–2016.

It was reported that Liu promised to write references letters for foreign students' residency applications if they volunteered on her campaign.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has expressed his support for the MP in his party and called criticism of Gladys Liu to be racially motivated. Morrison refused to comment on whether Australian intelligence agencies have previously investigated Liu. However, it has been reported that in 2018, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had assessed the guests at an event organised by Liu, and suggested to then-PM Malcolm Turnbull that he not attend it.

Despite the Prime Minister's support, Liu has faced extreme opposition from within both moderate and conservative factions of the Liberal Party of Australia. The opposition has expressed concern over the influence of the Communist Party of China within Australia.

In November 2019, media reports emerged that Liu had connections to an alleged Chinese spy, Nick Zhao – based on two images clearly depicting Zhao both standing and sitting next to Liu at a meeting for the Eastern Multicultural Branch of the Victorian Liberal Party on January 26, 2016 in Liu's former home. Zhao alleged that he had been offered over $1 million by an unnamed Chinese businessman to infiltrate the Australian Government by running for the seat of Chisholm, the seat which Gladys Liu currently holds. Liu reported that she "had no recollection" of meeting Mr Zhao, stating, "I swear I don't know this guy."

In December 2019, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Liu assisted in securing federal access for a Communist Party of China-linked company, Brighsun, that was later implicated in a drug money laundering probe.