The Asian Australian Alliance - with over 130 signatures - calling on Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge to address Senator Eric Abetz’s request to three Chinese-Australians to “unconditionally condemn” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Abetz asked Osmond Chiu, Yun Jiang, and Wesa Chau the question during a parliamentary inquiry into issues faced by diaspora communities in October. They were all appearing at the inquiry to provide submissions.
And more recently, Osmond Chiu appeared on Q+A Monday night asking former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull about Abetz’s line of questioning.
Days after the airing of the program the Asian Australian Alliance released their public letter. So far, it includes several politicians, activists, and public figures.
Molina Asthana is a solicitor and lead Victorian Convenor of the Asian Australian Alliance.
She told The Feed the public letter and petition was planned after the "silence" from the federal government to address what she calls a "loyalty test" given to the three Chinese Australians.
was made in partnership with independent progressive political activist group GetUp.
"That question itself was so divisive and so unjustified, and racial. No action was taken on that either, when requested, neither the Prime Minister nor Minister Tudge took any action to address that," she said.
Molina Asthana is a solicitor and lead Victorian Convenor of the Asian Australian Alliance. Source: Supplied
"We felt that we needed to have this petition and an open letter, which has the support of other people to show the government what that behavior is leading to and how divisive it is."
Osmond Chiu is a Research Fellow at the Per Capita think tank and a Senior Policy and Research Officer at the Community and Public Sector Union.
The response to the petition, which has over 25 thousand signatures, has been heartening for him. Osmond says it shows people from all walks of life are willing to publicly stand up against Abetz's behaviour and call it out as "unacceptable".
"What Senator Abetz did wasn't good for social cohesion or our national interest and in Australia's best interest to show we reject his behaviour," Osmond told The Feed.
"What's been disappointing has been the silence from the federal government, it almost feels like they were just hoping the issue just went away."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in late October in relation to questions about Abetz's comments: "There is only one pledge that any Australian citizen should take and that's the pledge they take when they become an Australian citizen."
Per Capita think tank research fellow Osmond Chiu. Source: SBS News
Acting Minister of Immigration Alan Tudge echoed Morrison's sentiments about this pledge.
"Australia has welcomed migrants from China for more than two hundred years and Australians of Chinese background have added immensely to our nation," Tudge told The Feed.
"Today, there are more than 1.2 million Australians of Chinese heritage.
"Our Chinese Australian community will continue to play an important role in ensuring we remain a successful, multicultural nation."
During his appearance on Q+A, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said Abetz was a sensationalist and didn't represent the Liberal Party.
Acting Federal Minister for Immigration Alan Tudge. Source: AAP
Abetz responded in an interview with on Tuesday, “[Turnbull’s] claims that I was ‘sensationalist’, really he should have said I was sensible.”
Abetz hasn't changed his view from his first public comments about his questions to Osmond and the two other Chinese Australians.
In a statement provided to The Feed, Senator Abetz said, "could Mr Chiu and the AAA spend just half the time attacking the brutality of the Chinese dictatorship as they spend on distorting a Senate discussion to attack the Senator?"
He said he, "will not apologise for championing the cause of the 1 million Uighurs in concentration camps, the prisoners of conscience, those that have been killed for their organs or the pro-democracy activists."
"[He] dismisses the petition headed by Labor operatives. It contains necessary falsehoods and misrepresentations to make out the narrative."
He added that he, "looks forward to the signatories having the courage to sign a petition condemning the brutality of the CCP dictatorship."
Liberal Senator Eric Abetz. Source: AAP
In response, Osmond said he is a Labor Party member and he says he doesn't hide that fact.
"But I was not appearing in any capacity representing the Labor Party," he said.
"Ultimately, this is about ensuring every Australian can have the confidence to appear before our parliament and not be singled out because of their cultural background.
"Frankly this should not be a partisan issue, it is about basic decency."
Osmond's submission related to the lack of cultural diversity in Australian politics. Within it, he called for both parties to aim for a target of 20 percent of culturally diverse candidates for winnable seats, and the establishment of a national integrity commission "to address the issue of undue political influence that has now become tied to Chinese-Australians".
Looking back on the senate inquiry after hearing Abetz's comments in the media over the last month about the incident still feels "a bit surreal" to Osmond.
"[It] really felt quite demeaning. I put in a submission to the inquiry, and I was happy to answer any questions the Senator had about the substance of my submission," he said.
"I expected we'd have some disagreements and that's fine. We live in a democracy and we should have a robust debate.
"But never in my wildest dreams did I expect that kind of unprompted, like loyalty test, to be applied to myself."
Where do the concerns lie?
Over the past year, according to research by the Australian National University (ANU), more than 80 per cent of respondents in their survey reported an instance of discrimination between January to October 2020.
"Asian-Australians report where experiences of discrimination are most likely to occur and that's in shops and restaurants, so kind of interacting with the general population," Professor Biddle told SBS News.
Osmond has also worked on research for the Asian Australian Alliance and Per Capita, which showed heightened levels of discrimination Asian-Australians have experienced this year. The of “COVID-19-related racism”.
“The last year has been pretty testing for a lot of Chinese Australians and also Australians of East Asian appearance,” he said.
“What [Abetz] did just really encapsulated a lot of the fears and worries that Chinese Australians have had about engaging in public debate that if you want to participate in public discussion or debate, you'll be targeted solely on the basis of your cultural background."
A spotlight on conversations about China & Australia
Molina Asthana from the Asian Australian Alliance believes public condemnation by the government is necessary to preserve the strength and resilience of Australia's multicultural liberal democracy.
"We want the government to speak up about this behaviour and condemn it."
But what Osmond believes is necessary is a clear statement from Minister Tudge and Prime Minister Scott Morrison - above and beyond their recent comments - addressing the comments made by Senator Abetz.
Osmond says we need to turn the dial down when it comes to our conversations surrounding Australia and China's relationship. He says strong public conversations surrounding foreign interference needs to happen but differently.
"But we can do it in a way where it's not personalised to the extent we treat others wanting to participate in this discussion in good faith," he said.
"What I am hoping out of this unfortunate incident is that people start to recognise, and take the concerns Chinese Australians have been raising for the past few years around this debate."
