October 24, 2023
An Australian lawyer with a police bounty on his head in Hong Kong has questioned why officers from the Chinese territory were allowed into Australia for training, calling it "traumatising" for pro-democracy activists being targeted by Beijing.
The Coalition is also grilling Australian Federal Police's top brass about why the Hong Kong officers were allowed to visit a cyber coordination centre in Australia, given ASIO head Mike Burgess recently accused China of "unprecedented" cyber espionage to obtain intellectual property.
Six members of the Hong Kong Police Force recently completed Australian Institute of Police Management programs and toured AFP sites in Canberra and Perth.
AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw defended the program, telling Senate estimates on Monday night that Australia needed to maintain cooperation with police in both China and Hong Kong to help crackdown on drug smuggling.
"We do actually continually share intelligence with [China] … we are actually a net receiver of intelligence and that intelligence has led to protecting a lot of Australians from harm, particularly from illicit drugs," he said.
"It's a challenging situation that we're faced with, with the complexity of the world we're in at the moment."
But Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson zeroed in on the training program, saying the imposition of China's national security law in Hong Kong and the vast crackdown on civil liberties in the territory raised deep questions about training their police in Australia.
"At this moment they are out there arresting people for lighting candles to commemorate Tiananmen Square, they are locking up media proprietors … they are locking up unionists, they are locking up opposition politicians," he said.
Melbourne-based lawyer Kevin Yam is one of eight overseas-based pro-democracy activists who has been targeted by Hong Kong police, who accused him of "serious" national security offences and offered a reward of $HK1 million ($192,000) for information leading to his arrest.
"While I don't question the AFP's professionalism, to have Hong Kong police in their official capacity being physically in Australia, from a personal perspective, is pretty traumatic," he told the ABC.
"I wasn't born yesterday, I know in this world you sometimes need to deal with unsavoury characters, the Hong Kong police being one of them.
"However, you can imagine that for people like me it's pretty traumatising … when in Australia I have to rely on the Australian police to keep an eye over me."
"I know that they're 800km away in Sydney and Canberra but still, it just doesn't sit right with me to see Hong Kong cops here."
The AFP said it had "longstanding" cooperation programs with the police and the officers involved were comparatively "junior".
Commissioner Kershaw said the training would focus on teaching "executive leadership" rather than "tactical" skills.
"Normally it's rule of law [and] democratic leadership, believe it or not … that's what we teach," he said.
"Our view is that we are trying to influence, and provide that capability, where it's in the interests of our nation."
The commissioner said Australia also maintained links with police in Hong Kong who were still "very good officers" despite the broader erosion of the rule of law in the territory.
"They're doing what they can. That whole system as you know, was [based] on rule of law," he said.
"I don't think it's over yet. Maybe I'm too optimistic. But for policing, certainly for us, certainly we've been providing support to particular leaders in that police force."
The commissioner promised to provide more information on the visit to the cyber security centre, but Senator Paterson said it would be "deeply ironic" if the training program involved cyber security.
"More detail would be appreciated, and it would be deeply ironic if the number one state sponsor of cyber attacks on Australia was coming to talk about cyber security with the AFP," he said.
Mr Yam also said any collaboration with Hong Kong authorities on cyber issues would be alarming.
"One of the things that the Hong Kong police have been proactive on is in the cyber space, prosecuting for sedition just for posting things on Facebook or WhatsApp," he said.
"I'm not sure that … this is a particularly smart move given the tendency they have to use any skills they learn in cyber to enforcing a crackdown."
The Coalition has flagged it will also scrutinise broader links between Hong Kong's police force and Australian institutions.
The current chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, John Lee, who previously served as a senior police officer in the territory, obtained a master's degree at Charles Sturt University.
And in 2018 the Hong Kong Police Force signed a new five-year Memorandum of Understanding on "academic cooperation" with Charles Sturt University to provide training to their officers.
The ABC has asked Charles Sturt University if the program has been renewed this year.
