Anthony Albanese has sought to correct the record on his previous statements on China’s trade strikes against Australia and his attendance at the opening of the Chau Chak Wing Museum, as the federal government doubles down its attacks on the Labor leader over national security.
The head of Australia’s counter-espionage agency ASIO, Mike Burgess, this week raised concern about the politicisation of national security, saying it was “not helpful”.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Anthony Albanese was the “Chinese government’s pick” at the election.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen, digitally altered
In a growing sign that Scott Morrison is seeking to elevate national security as a key point of contrast in the lead-up to the election, the Prime Minister said Mr Albanese was the “Chinese government’s pick at this election”. He also widened his attack on Labor by arguing it pulled billions out of the defence and national security budgets when last in government.
The Prime Minister’s comments came a day after he was forced to withdraw a reference to Labor frontbencher Richard Marles as a “Manchurian candidate” over a speech he made in Beijing in 2019.
The government has also this week criticised Mr Albanese for attending a gala dinner seated next to Chinese billionaire Dr Chau Chak Wing’s daughter, Winky Chau.
Mr Chau was this week named in Parliament as the “puppeteer” behind a foreign interference plot against NSW Labor’s preselection process that was foiled by ASIO. Mr Chau labelled the claim “baseless”.
Mr Albanese made a statement to Parliament on Thursday confirming he spoke to Mr Burgess before he attended the dinner in November 2020.
The Labor leader said he wanted to put on record “somewhat unusually” that he spoke with Mr Burgess on Thursday and the ASIO boss gave him permission to disclose that conversation.
“I did that Mr Speaker, and I do regularly consult with our national security agencies because I take their role seriously as leader of the opposition,” Mr Albanese said. “And the abuse of national security provisions has been quite a disgrace and has undermined Australia’s national interests.”
Mr Albanese also criticised The Australian newspaper’s editorial on Thursday, which quoted him saying in a press conference in January that the government should use the appointment of a new Chinese ambassador to urge Beijing to withdraw “some of the actions that have been taken to stop Australian products going to China”.
“Some? Mr Albanese’s comment raised the questions – how many and which ones?” the editorial stated.
But in the same press conference, Mr Albanese also said: “China should, and I hope that the Ambassador would, support the withdrawal of those effective sanctions which are in place, whether it be for our natural resources or our products such as wine and agricultural products as well”.
“They have selectively quoted my answer, in order to misrepresent my answer, about sanctions that are taking place from China against Australia,” Mr Albanese told Parliament.
“My statement in response to a question from a journalist was very clear. It went to the entirety of the sanctions that have been placed on Australia. Those opposite know it, and so does any journalist of worth their salt.”
Defence Minister Peter Dutton on Thursday doubled down on his attack against Labor over its position on China, saying Beijing would exploit Labor leader Anthony Albanese.
But Mr Dutton said Australians need a government that argues from “a position of strength” and pushes back against “bullies”.
“Bullies don’t step down if they’ve got somebody who is just happy to cower, and I’m not going to cower to anyone. And we’re not going to cower as a government or country to anyone,” he told 2GB.
“That doesn’t mean we’re going to pick a fight, we want a good relationship with China and we want them to respect our democracy, we wanted them to respect our rule of law and freedom of speech.”
Mr Dutton also used revelations in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age last Friday that China was behind a recent foreign interference plot that targeted the preselection process of NSW Labor to argue the opposition couldn’t be trusted.
“You’ve got all sorts of, frankly, relationships … particular with the NSW mob, we know the history of the NSW Labor Party.”
Labor senator Kristina Keneally also questioned Department of Defence secretary Greg Moriarty about the importance of maintaining bipartisanship in standing up to China.
“Australia’s national resilience is an important contributor to our overall defence posture, and national resilience depends on national unity to a certain extent,” Mr Moriarty said.
Asked whether adversaries such as China were seeking to stoke division, Mr Moriarty said: “Adversaries will seek to sow division. Over many centuries that has been the case in a variety of circumstances and Australia’s national resilience is an important part [of defence].”
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