Liberal senator Ian Macdonald has been asked to apologise for linking Labor Senator Penny Wong to Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo during Senate Estimates on Tuesday.
Senator Macdonald mixed up the names Wong and Huang and asked if the Labor senator was related.
Labor leader Bill Shorten sent out a statement to Chinese media following the exchange calling Senator Macdonald’s comment as an, “Asian slur”.
"It's disgraceful that a Liberal senator would suggest that people of Asian background all have the same name or are all related," Mr Shorten says, "Comments like this that have racist undertones must always be called out. There is never an excuse."