“It wouldn’t be at all surprising if those two events were connected,” Senator Paterson said. The initial problems came as he took a list of 14 demands handed by the Chinese embassy to an Australian journalist to the G7 to warn world leaders about the dangers of giving China too much leverage. The Victorian senator also revealed the prime minister’s WeChat account has been plagued with problems for at least six months, with issues starting around the time he attended G7 meetings in the UK.Īn agent running Mr Morrison’s account due to the app’s terms and conditions experienced trouble posting in the middle of 2021, which was around when the prime minister lobbied global government heads not to become overexposed to Chinese influence. No politician should be on WeChat and legitimising their censorship.” “It is very clearly government action in my view. “What the Chinese government has done by shutting down an Australian account is foreign interference of Australian democracy in an election year,” Senator Paterson told Sydney radio station 2GB. Senator Paterson said the action was sanctioned by the Chinese government and amounted to foreign interference. “The government has directly appealed to WeChat to restore access and no response has been given, which seems pretty clear WeChat has no intention on allowing the prime minister to continue to post,” he told Sky News. He called on all Australian politicians to boycott the platform. Liberal chair of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee James Paterson said WeChat had not heeded requests from the government to restore access to Mr Morrison’s account. It’s very, very disappointing to see the prime minister prevented from having that access.”īut Mr Frydenberg didn’t join his colleague’s call to boycott the platform amid the controversy. “It should be on offer to politicians of all political persuasions, it shouldn’t be a political football. “It’s something we would like to see rectified because it’s a method of communication to the Australian Chinese community which is very important,” he told reporters in Brisbane on Monday.
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