Drew Pavlou: "It's not all about China!"

Beyond The Rona

In this episode we meet a local character who’s got some strong ideas about how we should build back better after COVID-19.

Drew Pavlou is a 22 year old who lives in Brisbane and unexpectedly found himself a target of Chinese Nationalists when he became involved in student politics at the University of Queensland. Drew is passionate about the human rights of Uyghurs, Taiwanese and Hong Kongers and organised a protest during the 2019/2020 Hong Kong protests. A professor at the university encouraged a counter protest with Chinese Nationalists at the university, during which Drew was physically assaulted.

Following the protest, Drew was suspended from the University and his family received death threats from the Chinese Communist Party. Drew then went on to gain and then lose his UQ senate seat, before standing up for himself against UQ and having his suspension overturned.

Drew is now running for an Australian Federal Senate seat (2022) after forming his own political party; Drew Pavlou Democratic Alliance: https://www.drewpavlou.com/

In this episode he discusses his political platform.

Drew Pavlou says he puts human rights at the centre of federal policy and his platform includes;

• Standing up to China and protection of Human Rights
• Strengthening Australia's democracy to fight corruption
• Making Australia a Renewables Superpower
• Economic Nation Building
• No Australian left behind, tackle poverty and homelessness
• Boycott China’s genocide
• Ripping up the Free Trade Agreement with China until the atrocities in China are stopped

Drew Pavlou believes that “inequality, the Climate Crisis and the Chinese Government’s atrocities and making politics work for people - it’s all connected”.

Drew’s 3 Big Ideas:

1. Sovereign supply chains, bring back Australian manufacturing
2. Rebuild our working class communities
3. Making politics work for the people, give democracy back to the people

Beyond the Rona Podcast is recorded in Logan, Queensland on Yuggera country. We acknowledge the traditional owners past, present and emerging.

Join us next time on Beyond The Rona Podcast: http://beyondtherona.com/

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