Politics melts down as One Nation recruits first Asian-born candidate

Advertisement

From the ABC:

A woman believed to be One Nation’s first Asian candidate is not offended by Pauline Hanson’s infamous remark 20 years ago that the country was at risk of “being swamped by Asians”.

Shan Ju Lin said she believed she and the party would get the votes of “good Asians” in the Queensland election, slated for 2018, as they too feared the rising influence of the Chinese Government in Australia.

She understood why Ms Hanson made those comments, which included claims that Asians “form ghettos and do not assimilate”.

“For European people it’s very difficult to distinguish Chinese or Korean or Japanese, and I can understand why she said it,” Ms Lin said.

“She sees the problem ahead of everybody, including you and me.

“Everything she said is happening now.”

Ms Lin, a school teacher who moved from Taiwan to Australia 26 years ago, said the Chinese Government, namely the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was exerting too much influence on Australia.

It was already influencing the Labor and Liberal parties, she said, adding there would be serious consequences if huge numbers of its supporters moved to Australia.

“I feel the Chinese Communist Party is a great threat to Australia because they bought a lot of businesses and our harbours and properties,” she said.

“They will take over power of Australia.

“They will form their own government.

Political tensions between China and neighbouring Taiwan stretch back more than 60 years, and Ms Lin said she had disliked the CCP since birth.

The CCP is also cracking down on Falun Gong, a Chinese meditation and spiritual movement that Ms Lin has participated in.

Ms Lin said she believed CCP supporters were behind an incident in the Brisbane suburb of Sunnybank in 2010, when projectiles were reportedly fired at anti-CCP newspaper the Epoch Times.

In 2018, Ms Lin will run in the Queensland state election seat of Bundamba — not far from Pauline Hanson’s old Ipswich stomping ground, west of Brisbane.

She has ties to the area because of multicultural festivals she organised through the World Harmony Society.

Ms Lin is set to come up against former Labor police minister Jo-Ann Miller, a candidate who enjoyed a huge swing at the last election but has been dogged by political scandals since 2015.

While the Bundamba electorate is overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon, Ms Lin said she believed Brisbane’s Asian community would support her bid to win a seat for One Nation.

“The other group will be supporting CCP, and those people who support CCP are selfish people.”

For the One Nation challenger, this election tilt could be a case of fourth time lucky.

Ms Lin said the Liberal National Party and Labor had previously approached her to run in other elections, but withdrew their support because of her involvement with the Epoch Times and views about the CCP.

She ran in the Queensland seat of Moreton for Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) in the 2016 federal election, but secured less than 2 per cent of the vote.

However, Ms Lin claimed the campaign was doomed from the start because she received little backing from KAP headquarters and did not even meet party leader Bob Katter.

Having spoken to Ms Hanson in person, Ms Lin said things were different this time.

“I believe she supports me,” Ms Lin said.

She said she believed she was One Nation’s first Asian candidate.

While Queensland campaign manager Jim Savage could not recall any others, he said the party had not kept records of the ethnic backgrounds of its past candidates.

“But when we have an Asian candidate everyone wants to know about it.”

Mr Savage said One Nation supported Ms Lin’s strong anti-CCP stance.

“Is China an evil communist dictatorship? Absolutely, communism is the diametric opposite to what One Nation stands for,” he said.

Pass the popcorn.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.