Image: Screenshot from 7NEWS Youtube video of podcast
7NEWS The Issue Podcast – “Fighting Against the Horror of Forced Organ Harvesting”
29 November 2025: David Matas joins 7NEWS National Security Editor Tim Lester on The Issue podcast to deep dive into the background of forced organ harvesting in China, and what Australia’s response to the practice has been.
Matas confirmed he had been trying to drive action with the Australian Parliament for two decades and discussed with Lester how receptive Australia has been.
“[T]here’s a spectrum… some people are supportive, receptive, interested, active. Others, not so much.”
“[N]obody argues in principle that we should be killing healthy people so that sick people can live longer … you don’t get that kind of opposition. You get disbelief which I’ve mentioned was a phenomenon with the Holocaust. You get insularity. It’s overseas, it’s not here. You get geopolitics, China is a big player.”
“You get money … people have got investments in China … Also of course what you’re dealing with, with China is a lot of contrary propaganda and some people … who don’t know that much about, don’t know what to make of the propaganda. The words “Falun Gong” don’t mean anything in English … [A] lot of people don’t even know what “Falun Gong” is and what we’ve got, of course, is something that’s not immediately visible.”
“But I would say on balance, regrettably, Australia’s a disappointment. [It’s] almost 20 years and they’ve done nothing, pretty much. And they really should do something.”
Lester questioned Matas on his thoughts as to how much economic necessity is clouding moral clarity on this question.
Matas responded, “The China tribunal and I think this is right. They said when you’re dealing with China, you have to realise you’re dealing with a criminal state. And I think one should keep that in mind.”
“But I think also those who are concerned about China, want to keep up business with China, concerned about the politics of China, can set up a comprehensive network of prevention and remedy without mentioning China. And Australia hasn’t even started to do that.”
When asked what he would ask for the Australian Prime Minister to do, Matas explained: “One of the simplest things to do is introduce into parliament legislation prohibiting exterritorial complicity and organ transplant abuse. It’s been a recommendation of a parliamentary committee, “Compassion, Not Commerce” in 2018. The government has agreed to the recommendation in 2021.”
“Four years later, still no legislation.”
“It should be a simple matter. It’s tied up with other issues … they want to decide everything before they decide anything, and which is of course a recipe for doing nothing. … I would say just introduce that legislation. That would be very simple.”
Click HERE for the news article and HERE to watch the video podcast on Youtube.
