The Wolverines, an informal parliamentary group concerned about the threat China poses to Australia's sovereignty, have welcomed a new pup to the fold: Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz.
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Counting Liberal, National and Labor parliamentarians among their ranks, the Wolverines are vocal critics of Beijing's increasingly aggressive form of diplomacy.
Members of the group include Liberal MHRs Andrew Hastie and Tim Wilson, Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, and others.
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To mark his membership of the Wolverines, Liberal senator James Paterson presented Senator Abetz with a sticker depicting wolf claw scratch marks. Like his peers, Senator Abetz has applied the sticker to the window of his Parliament House office.
"That's a little fun emblem," Senator Abetz said. "Like a wolverine, when the odds are against us we still fight exceptionally hard."
"[Australian sovereignty is a] very serious issue but you do need a bit of levity in these things as well."
Senator Abetz said the Wolverines were "concerned about the sovereignty of our nation and her integrity".
"There is no doubt ... foreign interference is becoming a very real issue," he said. "And top of the pops, of course, is China."
"And so that is a genuine concern, be it with the Belt and Road Initiative in Victoria, influence in our universities, and so the list goes on."
Along with his Tasmanian Liberal Senate colleague Claire Chandler, Senator Abetz has joined the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international coalition of lawmakers seeking to reform the way democratic nations deal with Beijing.
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