Peter Hartcher, Political and international editor for The Sydney Morning, joins Michael to discuss his latest article ‘How Australia defied global health authority on Coronavirus’.

Mr Hartcher writes ‘was Australia about to put the cash flow of its universities ahead of the peoples’ health in the middle of a pandemic? Was the Morrison government about to bungle the coronavirus response as badly as it did the bushfires?’

‘As MPs and senators returned to Canberra this week for a parliamentary sitting, it was a topic of lively concern. Government members knew that the universities had been agitating behind the scenes for the China travel ban to be relaxed as soon as possible. Some 100,000 of their Chinese students are caught by the ban and the unis want them back in Australia. Paying fees.’

‘The Chinese government had been complaining about the ban for weeks, too. Australia had been “discriminatory”, according to the Chinese embassy in Canberra. In multiple meetings across the government, every week with the politicians who have let them in, China’s officials have been pressing their case hard.’

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