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Get our free news app; get our morning email briefingFormer Asio boss Dennis Richardson says there’s an attempt to create an “artificial division” on China.
Richardson tells ABC radio it’s been well known for many years that China seeks to intervene in politics in Australia, and that the government and the opposition have long stood together. He says:
Up till now they have been, that’s why I find it puzzling that a government would appear to go out of its way to ... create the impression of a difference where none exists. And the government is quite happy for you and I to be talking about this right now.
It suits their political purposes.
It would have some unintended consequences on particularly out relationship with New Zealand, but also in relationship to individuals potentially who’ve been living in the country quite peacefully and successfully for decades.
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