La Trobe University's James Leibold says there are "privacy collection" and human rights concerns surrounding the 10 million Chinese COVID-19 testing kits arriving in Australia. The testing kits were part of a deal with Chinese company Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) brokered by mining magnate Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, and require DNA samples in order for them to work.
The government sought high level security advice on whether the biometric information of Australians could be sent back to China.
Mr Siebold told Sky News host he doesn't know if his DNA samples - if he needed to use the testing kits - would "end up in Beijing in some police linked data base".
On top of the obvious privacy issues, Mr Siebold said there are ethical concerns relating to the two Chinese companies who have provided the machines used to test the data.
He said Beijing Genomic Institute and Thermo-Fisher Scientific are "liked to serious human rights abuses in China's western region of Xinjiang".
"There's a lack of full information at this stage".
Image: AP
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