During a fierce debate in 2017 on alleged Chinese interference in Australian politics, opposition leader Bill Shorten held up a photograph in Parliament of the then foreign minister Julie Bishop smiling alongside Chinese property tycoon Huang Xiangmo.
Mr Shorten, the Labor leader, was seeking to show that the ruling Liberal-National coalition had cosy ties with Mr Huang, a controversial figure at the centre of claims that Beijing has been trying to meddle in Australian domestic affairs.
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