WATCH: Foreign students CAUGHT exploiting our democracy at ‘kids’ rally against Pauline Hanson

Last week’s so-called “kids rally” against Pauline Hanson was a farce. We have already shown in previous reports that adults organised it to ideologically groom children. But there is something we have not shown yet, and it is the part I found equally disturbing.

Standing among those children were grown adults on student visas, wearing keffiyehs and slogans enthusiastically adopted by supporters of Hamas. People who should be in lecture theatres, using Australian democracy as a stage to attack Australian politicians while treating the authoritarian regimes they came from as completely off limits.

While covering the rally I walked straight up to a Chinese international student wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh. I wanted to know why he was so willing to use Australian democracy to protest our politicians, yet seemingly unwilling to show the same courage towards his own government. I told him that if he really wanted to be brave, he could go to Tiananmen Square and protest the atrocities of the regime back home.

His answer told me everything. He said he was in Australia right now.

Exactly. He was standing on Australian soil exercising freedoms the Chinese Communist Party would never grant him at home. So I asked him something much simpler. Did he support the CCP?

He would not answer. He called the question offensive, deflected to the Communist Party of Australia, a fringe outfit that has never held a federal seat, then hid behind free speech. So I asked whether the free speech he was enjoying that afternoon existed in China. Again, nothing. 

But that was precisely the point. He would not criticise the CCP. Not a word. 

Later I spoke to another Chinese man who was loudly condemning Israel. He too was perfectly comfortable using Australian soil and Australian free speech to attack a foreign country. So I turned the question back to his own. What did he think of the CCP?

The moment the subject moved from Israel to China, the confidence drained out of him. He became evasive, then tried to turn the crowd on me rather than answer.

The contrast was impossible to miss. These are not children. They are adults, here to study, spending their time as political activists while holding their own governments to an entirely different standard.

Free speech is a fundamental Western value, but it cuts both ways. If you use the freedoms of this country to attack Australian politicians, you should also expect questions about the government and political system you came from. The same applies to the symbols you choose to wear. If they are blockociated with an organisation Australia has listed as a terrorist organisation, Australians are entitled to ask what those symbols mean to you, and whether support for Hamas is compatible with holding a visa to stay here.

That raises a broader question. Why are people here on student visas so eager to lecture Australians about our politics and involve Australian schoolchildren in their activism, while remaining silent about the regimes they came from? If they genuinely believe in confronting oppression and tyranny, why does that courage disappear when the subject turns to China? They know exactly what would happen if they tried to stage the same protest in Tiananmen Square. That contrast speaks for itself.

Thanks to your support at ProtectAvi.com we were able to stay on the ground, speak to the protesters and have the conversations that exposed what was really happening behind the slogans and placards.

But being able to do this work comes at a cost.

If you think it is important that we keep going into these protests, asking the uncomfortable questions and showing you what is really happening on the ground, please chip in at ProtectAvi.com.