‘Twiggy’ snaps under Chinese pressure

Mining magnate Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest has played down controversy surrounding his invitation to Victoria's Chinese Consul-General to speak during a press conference with the Health Minister as "a non-story". Mr Forrest blindsided the federal government when he invited Long Zhou to speak in an address with Greg Hunt after Mr Forrest secured 10 million coronavirus test kits for Australia from China. Twiggy - as he's affectionately known - did a similar thing in Western Australia when announcing China had assisted him in "breaking the back of the PPE crisis". "This is the biggest beat-up ever," Mr Forrest said. Liberal MP Andrew Hastie hit back at the businessman's stunt emphatically stating, "yeah, we're not happy". "This guy drops out of the sky in his private jet and enables the Chinese Communist Party to ambush a Commonwealth press conference." Prime Minister Scott Morrison is standing firm despite political pushback from China in calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. Image: News Corp Australia Via news.com.au — Australia’s #1 news site https://www.news.com.au