Growing up in Hong Kong with six siblings, she often helped her parents run the family milk bar. Gladys' family is of Chaozhou heritage which she referenced in her inaugural address to Parliament after her election as MP. She studied at Belilios Public School, and attended Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She learnt to play the trombone and joined the Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra. In 1985 Liu immigrated to Australia to study at La Trobe University. She began her working life by waiting tables at The Flower Drum Restaurant while studying. She studied Speech Pathology and is completely deaf in her left ear. Following this, she worked for the Victorian Education Department for 14 years providing support to students with speech impediments. During this time, she also co-owned and operated two restaurants in Box Hill and Richmond. She has served as a government advisor for two Premiers of Victoria, served as Head of Business Development and Corporate Social Responsibility Advisor for Canaan Lawyers and President of Box Hill Chess Club. Liu has two children, who have attended Princeton and Harvard Business School. She became an Australian citizen in April 1992. Under Chinese nationality law where dual nationality is not recognised, she was still considered a Chinese national in Hong Kong after 1 July 1997 unless a change of nationality was declared. In 2018 she formally declared a change of nationality to the Hong Kong immigration department of her Australian citizenship to which they issued formal recognition in September 2018.
Liu has campaigned against the controversial Safe Schools program as well as same-sex marriage, both of which were significant political issues in 2016. In June 2019, Liu remained silent on the matter of the extradition bill introduced into the Hong Kong legislature in February 2019 which sparked the largest protest demonstrations ever seen in Hong Kong and an international outcry in opposition, disappointing members of the Hong Kong Chinese diaspora community in Australia. In July 2019, she lauded the protestors' passion and commitment to democracy. In September 2019, it was reported that members of Liu's Liberal Party branch had called to relax foreign investment laws related to China at the 2017 Victorian Liberal Party Conference.
Controversy
In 2019, media reports linked Liu to an external influence organization called the World Trade United Foundation, which has ties to the United Front Work Department, which manages interest groups in support of the Chinese Communist Party. Many of the World Trade United Foundation's members are also members of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In response to the reports, Liu claims to have left the World Trade United Foundation in 2016. Liu was also reported to have been a member of two other front organisations from 2003 to 2015 that were both later rolled into the United Front Work Department. Liu responded that she could not recall if she had been a member of the department over the 12-year period. At the 2017 Victorian Liberal Party conference, the party's Eastern Multicultural Branch, of which Liu was president, proposed a motion that would make foreign investment in agribusiness and agricultural land permissible without prior approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board. Liu was reported to have failed to declare a $39,675 AUD donation to the Victorian Liberal Party in 2015–2016. It was alleged that Liu promised to write references letters for foreign students' residency applications if they volunteered on her campaign. Prime MinisterScott Morrison has expressed his support for the MP in his party and stated that criticism of Gladys Liu was racially motivated. Morrison refused to comment on whether Australian intelligence agencies have previously investigated Liu. However, it has been reported that in 2018, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had vetted certain guests at a "meet and greet" organised by Liu, and suggested that then-PM Malcolm Turnbull not attend it. In November 2019, media reports emerged that Liu had connections to an alleged Chinese spy, Nick Zhao – based on two images showing Zhao sitting next to Liu at a meeting for the Eastern Multicultural Branch of the Victorian Liberal Party on January 26, 2016 in Liu's former home. Zhao claimed that he had been offered over $1 million by an unnamed Chinese businessman to infiltrate the Australian Government by running for the seat of Chisholm. Zhao reported the alleged cultivation to ASIO. Liu reported that she "had no recollection" of meeting Zhao. In December 2019, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Liu assisted in securing meetings with federal politicians for the Australian subsidiary of Brighsun, a Chinese-controlled energy group. Brigshun was later implicated in a drug money laundering probe conducted by the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.
