Christopher Pyne: China opening an SA consulate is not a cause for protest, it is the inevitable outcome of Adelaide growing up

Christopher Pyne: You can criticise China’s actions in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and the South China Sea, but don’t begrudge them wanting a consulate in SA.

I can’t understand the hysteria surrounding the opening of the new consulate of the People’s Republic of China in Adelaide.

It needs to comply with development and planning laws and, of course, those who manage the consulate need to be good neighbours and work with the community of Joslin, but the idea of a new consulate in Adelaide is not, in and of itself, a cause for protest.

There are reasons for Australia to be concerned about our relationship with China.

There are more reasons to be concerned about China’s defence force posture in the Indo Pacific.

Adelaideans have every right to hold peaceful protests outside the Chinese Consulate.

They can do so over China’s unenforceable claims over the South China Sea, the Chinese state’s treatment of the minority Uighur population, the treatment of democracy activists in Hong Kong and the attitude China is taking to Taiwan.

Protesters outside the South Australian Chinese consulate last week. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

Closer to home, protesters would be justified over unfair tariffs imposed on Australian wine entering China, or policies that have led to a 40 per cent drop in exports to China, a country with a free-trade agreement with Australia.

But China opening a consulate in our fair city is not a cause for protest, it is the inevitable outcome of Adelaide growing up.

We are one of the most significant defence destinations in the world. That is no exaggeration.

There are few nations in the world undertaking a defence project of the size of the Attack Class submarine build. It is a $50bn project.

No countries of a comparable size to Australia are engaged in such a venture. Yet Australia is – right here in Adelaide at the Osborne Naval Shipyard.

But that’s not all. Right next door to the Naval Group submarine yard is the new surface shipyard, which is hosting the build of the Hunter Class anti-submarine warfare frigate being constructed by ASC Shipbuilding as a subsidiary of British shipbuilder BAES. It’s a $35bn project to build nine ships, all as big as the three Air Warfare Destroyers that were built at Osborne over the past decade.

Adelaide is the centre of Australian military shipbuilding. We are the site of one of the busiest and certainly most modern shipyards in the world. By the mid 2020s, it will provide work to 5000 South Australians.

The Osborne shipyard site where the Future Submarines will be built.

Not far away, the Royal Australian Air Force’s Edinburgh military base, one of only two super bases in Australia, houses significant land, air and intelligence capabilities. Not least of which are the Poseidon and Triton military surveillance aircraft and the Signals Intelligence unit. Between the two, sits the Mawson Lakes precinct. There you will find Raytheon’s new surface-to-air missile defence infrastructure, Codan, Saab Australia, Lockheed Martin, Daronmont, the University of South Australia’s defence assets and a myriad of small and medium-sized defence industry companies supplying the larger overseas and domestic companies, which provide the capability required for the Australian Defence Force.

Most South Australians wouldn’t realise that the Defence Science and Technology Group of the Department of Defence, that is the primary research arm of the ADF, has its largest presence in Australia right here in Salisbury.

Lot 14, on North Terrace, is the site of Australia’s Australian Space Agency and Space Mission Control.

A few years ago, Adelaide hosted the World Space Convention and, just last week, Australia’s Space Expo. Companies such as Saber Astronautics, Electro Optic Systems, Myriota and Southern Launch have all set up here in Adelaide, because for the first time in decades there is a reason to do so. The Australian Government is investing in space for the first time since Woomera, in the state’s Far North, was wound down in the 1960s.

Adelaide has arrived on the defence and space industry scene globally. China, and many other nations, are interested in what goes on here and they will seek a presence here themselves.

The Chinese consulate in the suburb of Joslin. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

I wouldn’t be surprised if other countries with an interest in the largest build up of our military capability since World War II followed the lead of China in setting up shop in Adelaide.

We need to be mindful and wary of that interest, but we shouldn’t fear it. It is the inevitable outcome of Adelaide coming of age as a global defence industry destination.

There are hardly any physical consulates in Adelaide. The government’s of Greece and Italy have a physical presence and there are upwards of twenty honorary consuls in Adelaide. They are welcome here and we would welcome more.

China’s consulate is physically significant and is populated with a large staff of Chinese nationals.

As long as they play by the rules, they are welcome here. That doesn’t mean we adopt a childlike naivety about why China has established a consulate in Adelaide. They are interested in what we are doing from a defence perspective and they want to be where the action is.

If I were them, I would do the same thing.

Disclosure: Christopher Pyne's lobbying firms Pyne and Partners and GC Advisory have as clients, respectively, Southern Launch and Saber Astronautics.