Media Release

KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter is urging Australians to contact their local federal MP and call on them to support a Parliamentary Inquiry into Chinese Communist Party influence over Australian Universities that will be voted on in the House of Representatives on Monday, August 31.

Revelations (in the Australian Newspaper) that the Chinese Communist government is actively recruiting leading Australian scientists for a secretive research program (The Thousand Talents Plan) that offers lucrative salaries but requires their inventions to be patented in China and obliges them to abide by Chinese law, only strengthens the need for a Parliamentary Inquiry, Bob Katter has said.

“It is a forgone conclusion that this Inquiry will take place, now that Mr Hastie and others are on-board,” Mr Katter said.

“We warmly welcome the leadership shown by Andrew Hastie in a place that is so often lacking in leadership.

“The motion I will move on August 31 calls on the Government to undertake a comprehensive study of the efforts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to exert influence over Australia’s universities and means by which it seeks to do so.

“The allegations that these Australian-based scientists are potentially being recruited for research with a military application and even to develop weapons, is of the highest concern, and there needs to be a complete clean out of the university sector.”

The Australian newspaper investigation revealed that the University of Queensland (UQ) was unaware that three of its professors were involved, or had been involved, in the Thousand Talents recruitment plan.

“This is the same University that suspended Australian student, Drew Pavlou, who was bashed during a pro-Hong Kong democracy demonstration on campus, and yet didn’t lift a finger to investigate the perpetrators of the violence,” Mr Katter said.

“I think we can now officially rename UQ, the University of Beijing since the people running the University are the Chinese Communist Government, and the Australian Chancellor and Vice Chancellors are just puppets on a string.

“They are selling their body and their soul, as well as the intellectual heart of the nation. It is time we stood on our own two feet and kicked the traitorous bastards that have been running the country for the last thirty years.”
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