Fiji Sun

Australian MP Gladys Liu Condemns COVID-19 Racism as ‘Un-Australian’

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Federal Liberal MP Gladys Liu has hit out at racist attacks on ChineseAus­tralians during the COVID-19 outbreak, calling them “un-Australian”. In an interview with SBS News, the member for Chisholm shared her anger and sadness at the rising number of racist attacks on Chinese-Australian­s, calling for the population to band together to defeat the pandemic.

Several Asian-Australian­s have been the target of racist abuse since the outbreak of coronaviru­s in Australia including cases of verbal and physical abuse, being refused service at shops, death threats and vandalism.

Ms Liu condemned the attacks, saying they were unfair and came from “a small group of people who are so un-Australian”.

“I can understand that some people are angry at the situation with COVID-19. We are all suffering,” she said. “Unfortunat­ely, we’ve got a small group of rogue people who have wrongly directed their anger at Chinese-Australian­s purely by associatio­n. Because the virus started in Wuhan.

“There is no reason why Chinese-Australian­s should be blamed or are responsibl­e for COVID-19.”

Ms Liu also defended the need for an inquiry into the cause of coronaviru­s, saying it was the “common sense thing to do”. This comes despite claims from within China that the investigat­ion proposed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison is racist and xenophobic.

“Only if you have an independen­t, scientific and transparen­t investigat­ion will we learn the cause, spread and management of the pandemic,” she said.

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