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The Chinese government has been “totally insane” by going down the path of political interference in Australia because it was never going to work and has now poisoned the bi-lateral relationship according to Sky News contributor Mark Latham.

Mr Latham spoke to Sky News host Paul Murray about the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in Labor Party politics, and how often a lowly member of the parliamentary party would be targeted, but historically it worked.

“Picking somebody lowly in the system is not necessarily innocent if it gives you a chance to network upward,” he said.

“If at the end of it you buy a political party’s foreign policy, that is a definition of foreign political interference which should be seriously illegal in this country.

“Being innocent and lowly and hopeless is not a defence.”

Mr Latham said China’s attempts to politically interfere was never going to work, was never sustainable and “it's backfired disastrously”.