It wouldn’t be a modern Australian election (or indeed Australian politics) without allegations of Chinese spy involvement.

This time, it is aimed at Clare O’Neil. The Australian reported that a Chinese-Australian Labor party member ‘used an intermediary’ to gather volunteers for O’Neil’s campaign on election day. The ten volunteers allegedly have links to the Hubei Association which is in the news for its own alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party (which honestly, at this stage of the game, come on. Everything in China has links to the Chinese Communist Party. It is how they run government in China. Does that make every organisation a spy organisation? In Australia’s political climate yes, but in reality?)

O’Neil said that an offer was made to help on election day and it was ‘politely declined’. Jane Hume very much enjoyed it in her ‘debate’ with O’Neil on the Seven Network this morning.

The pair were discussing Peter Dutton’s (outdated) belief that as Australians “mature” they become a Liberal. Which is old fashion thinking from someone who grew up with something to conserve – the old theory going that people get more conservative as they age because they have individual assets and wealth they want to hold on to, and therefore become less about the collective, which younger voters promote because they don’t have that same asset wealth. But that was at at time when housing was fkn affordable and people had wage growth and public services actually took care of you. In reality, more Australians are turning to disruptors outside of the major parties with major parties lucky to have a primary vote with a 3 in front of it, while more people look to minor parties and independents.

Hume said of Dutton’s outdated characterisation: 

There is no doubt that as you get older and you have a family, for instance, that you start looking forward to what’s better economic management opportunities, what’s the future going to hold for the prosperity of our nation, not just for you, but for your kids as well. 

I’m sorry – who are these people? When I think about the future I don’t think about fricking economic management. I think about what the planet we are leaving kids is going to look like. What sort of country we are leaving them. I think about the prospect of a nuclear exchange and how we are sleepwalking towards a complete societal breakdown. I do not think who is going to get more fkn surpluses in a budget.

O’Neil says:

I just…you know, it’s Peter Dutton’s “it’s not me, its you” moment. In my experience, that doesn’t work romantically and it’s certainly not going to work politically. Fancy coming in days away from an election and pointing at at entire generation of people and saying “You’re not voting for me because you’re not mature enough.” It’s offensive and ridiculous. The truth is that the Liberals have nothing to offer young people this election. They say massive HECS aren’t a problem. Labor will cut them on 1 June. This is a party that doesn’t support penalty rates or pay increases for low-paid workers. Peter Dutton can’t even acknowledge that climate change is real…

The pair have a back and forth over who is coping harder and then Hume says:

There might be Chinese spies handing out for you, but for us, there’s dozens, thousands, hundreds of young people handing out how-to- vote cards for the Liberal Party.

O’Neil says:

I think they’re getting a bit desperate. If I was in their position, perhaps I would be too.