Some days, reading the news only leads to more frustration. I have had a few such days in recent weeks.
The frustration isn’t borne by the actual content of the news but at the length of time it has taken to get past the mainstream media gatekeepers. Like most politicians, the media need a crisis to have developed before they will highlight a growing problem.
In recent times that crisis has revolved around China.
To many in the media, China has been a benevolent partner of Australia that needs to be appeased at all costs and can do no wrong. For the leftist political ideologues who are creatures of the MSM, China is a petri-dish of their new version of Communism and the effectiveness of state control.
It is worth noting that there are a number of exceptions to that statement and they have suffered for their honesty and diligence in raising matters that should concern us all.
However, in recent weeks it seems others have found their voice. Our newspapers are filled with warnings about the level of influence that the Chinese government have in our education sector and our political system. They have catalogued how dependent our universities are on Chinese money and how they shape curriculums to appease the Chinese government narrative.
Such is the desire for foreign cash, some of our leading academic institutions have been accused of lowering English standards to cater to foreign students. That’s not hard to believe when (in my experience) a foreign PhD student who gets good marks is unable to speak or write English to any workplace standard.
The Chinese government-supported protests in Australia against the Hong Kong democracy movement show just how many agents of communism are making themselves at home here.
At this point it is worth noting that the Hong Kong protests were initiated by a proposed extradition treaty from Hong Kong to mainland China. This is effectively the same treaty that Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop were endorsing here in Australia until it was stopped by my disallowance motion.
The fact that those who have the closest association with China are prepared to risk their lives to protect themselves from this treaty but our former leaders were prepared to endorse it says a lot about how adrift our government was.
Our former leadership remained steadfastly silent whilst China conquered and militarised the South China Sea whilst leasing our ports to Chinese-backed companies.
Regrettably, all of these matters (and many more) have been written about ad nauseam by myself and others but the warnings have fallen on deaf ears. Only now, when the damage is actually being felt do people seem to wake up.
It’s still not too late to tame the Chinese dragon but we have to accept the reality of what that means. Dealing with the Chinese problem will mean economic pain and it will require diplomatic strength. However, the consequences of inaction will be far greater than that felt by dealing with these matters now.
Cory Bernardi is the author of seven books and has been a member of the Australian rowing team, a publican, an investment portfolio manager and spent nearly 14 years as an Australian Senator.
