Deathly foreign policy silence needs to be broken

On matters of climate, education and healthcare it seems both Prime Ministerial candidates have a lot to say. But when it comes to discussing our relationship with China it seems the right words are harder to find, writes Dennis Atkins.

The Australian China relationship has never been more important or more fraught.

We remain dependent on the great Middle Kingdom economically, our technological relationship is frayed because of the ban on Huawei in developing 5G phone, and differences over policies in the South China Sea and the Pacific are sharper than they’ve ever been.

Regardless of this, no one is talking about any foreign policy issues in this election let alone the pivotal Australia-China relationship. This is a travesty. We know almost nothing about where the Morrison Government stands beyond change nothing.

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Labor’s Penny Wong, who would be foreign minister if Bill Shorten wins, has outlined her priorities for China and Asia but her leader has been next to mute. He has foreshadowed the most modest of ambitions on the world stage if he wins — but even that is far in advance of the vacuum we’ve seen in the Coalition’s statements and policies on its website.

In fact, the most detailed section of the Liberal Party’s campaign website which alludes to foreign policy is under the heading of “Past Achievements in Government” — dating back to Robert Menzies in 1949.

Not talking about such an important relationship is hardly a policy plan. Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

The importance of the Australia/China relationship cannot be denied or ignored.

China buys $134 billion worth of our goods and services each year, in turn providing many hundreds of thousands of jobs in Australia and boosting our economic growth.

It’s true all things Australia and China have become more complicated in recent times because both major parties rely on Chinese individuals as a source of campaign financing.

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Many of these people were Chinese nationals but that source of funding disappeared when the parliament was shamed into banning foreign donations after some equal opportunity scandals.

Chinese figures with deep roots back to their motherland and its Communist Party rulers still figure on the donor lists for the Coalition and Labor.

But no one should get carried away with the idea China and Chinese interests are big players in the political donations stakes. One study of the past seven federal electoral cycles found the amount donated to both sides accounted for a range beginning at 0.3 per cent and going up to 6.13 per cent of the total. At the last federal election it was just 2.6 per cent. That’s not the story at all.

Labor’s Penny Wong, who would be foreign minister if Bill Shorten wins, has outlined her priorities for China and Asia. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Regardless of these reddish herrings, both sides have been remarkably quiet when it comes to foreign policy. Wong gave a major speech to Australia’s premier foreign policy think tank, the Lowy Institute, this week but her Liberal counterpart, Senator Marise Payne has only been seen promoting candidates and local issues in her home turf of Western Sydney.

At least Wong has outlined a FutureAsia policy which has these key elements — improving Asia capability in business, better leveraging our diaspora communities, strengthening high-level economic engagement with Indonesia and India, including through APEC and the G20, and greater support for Southeast Asian studies particularly languages.

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Wong takes a realism first stand on China saying Labor will not pre-emptively frame the country as a threat while grounding policy in realities, including that China is not a democracy and does not share Australia’s commitment to the rule of law.

Most vitally, Wong says Australia’s relationship with a changing China needs to be redefined. “All stakeholders — government, the foreign policy community, business, industry — need to work together to identify those opportunities for deeper engagement where our interests coincide and to manage difference constructively,” Wong told the Lowy Institute.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has provided little information about his vision on Australia’s relationship with China. Picture Kym Smith

Richard McGregor, a China specialist fellow at Lowy, laments the lack of any foreign policy debate in this election, something he says is being noticed in our region.

“There is definitely a deep discord there — top levels of government, academia and even business in Australia have been possessed by talk of little else than China, but on the campaign trail, there has been an almost deathly silence,” McGregor tells Insight.

Noting the “intense policy making” of the last two years, McGregor adds there is no mood to have a major public brawl with a neighbour of such significance.

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“Morrison certainly has enough problems on is hands without battling China. But the lack of debate is misleading for another reason, because our problems with China aren’t going away, no matter who wins the election.”

McGregor is spot on. Not talking about our region and China is not going to inoculate us from what will be the most important issue we will face in the coming half century.

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