Federal Labor must stop pandering to China
Federal Labor has not acknowledged the monstrous bullying the Chinese have engaged in since the virus emerged. And rather than grabbing the chance to wind back some of the cost of the virus, Labor wants to punish us with more debt, writes Piers Akerman
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Albo: ‘It’s time Teddy’s bravery and sacrifice is recognised’
- Morrison’s VC snub splits Cabinet Ministers
The Wuhan virus has exposed an unprecedented combination of ignorance, fantasy and pure opportunism in left-wing politics — and an unprecedented use of the word unprecedented.
Ignorance has abounded since the Chinese virus first slithered into Australia with returning travellers, notably among those who had been on what was to be the cruise of their lives aboard the Ruby Princess.
Such was the level of ignorance that the very health officials charged with ensuring that our nation is safe from pandemics not only permitted infected passengers to disembark from the floating viral petri dish, but they all but ushered them onto aircraft bound for every state and territory and destinations abroad.
Then, basing their decision-making on epidemiological modelling which had zero basis in actuality, our provincial politicians surrendered their authority to regiments of unelected petty officials who insisted they impose draconian economy crippling lockdown measures.
Still attempting to follow Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, the fool who signed up to loading Victorian taxpayers with a massive debt to Beijing’s signature Belt and Road Initiative, federal Labor has not yet acknowledged the monstrous bullying the Chinese have been engaging in since the virus emerged from either a bowl of bat soup or Wuhan’s biological research centre.
Opposition agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon, notionally one of the saner Labor frontbenchers, showed he is just as much a patsy for the Big Panda as is Andrews when he attacked the federal Government’s call for an internationally-supported inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
Here is Fitzgibbon, leading the charge on “our” ABC: “So what was the interest the Prime Minister was pursuing? Running out there, in front of the pack, not knowing what model he was talking about, without consulting anyone … How did that help Australia?”
Globally, Australia was reaping the benefits of being one of the first to seek answers about the coronavirus; answers that hopefully will help prevent future outbreaks of highly infectious viral epidemics.
Contrary to the views espoused by Fitzgibbon and others in the Labor Party, more than 130 nations meeting virtually for the 73rd conference of the World Health Assembly on Tuesday supported Australia’s call for an independent inquiry — with China’s President Xi joining the consensus at the 11th hour.
Just as former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was praised for leading the call for a thorough investigation into the shooting down of the Malaysian Airline’s flight MH17 — and last Wednesday Igor Girkin, a Russian who is in charge of pro-Russian separatists, admitted feeling “moral responsibility for the deaths of the 298 people in the attack — so Prime Minister Morrison has won international acknowledgment for leading the call for the coronavirus inquiry. Labor doesn’t give up though.
Its support for totalitarian regimes — covering their naked Communist or Socialist underpinnings with the fig leaf of claims of working for the people — is as obvious as its leaders’ desire to impose controls on our population.
In Victoria, Red Dan Andrews permitted a meatworks to continue infecting workers under cover of privacy issues until it became the same sort of viral hotspot as the Ruby Princess.
In NSW, Opposition leader Jodi McKay called on the Berejiklian government to give local government officials greater authority to enforce social distancing guidelines — essentially giving the local dog catchers and rangers more power to push citizens around.
But the clearest indication of Labor’s unfitness to govern was its response to the $60 billion reporting error by businesses to the JobKeeper program.
Following that revelation, Labor called for this money to be spent rather than celebrating the saving. The Chinese virus has slammed Australia with an — here we go — unprecedented lifetime debt and this JobKeeper error has provided a degree of respite.
Rather than grabbing the opportunity to wind back some of the horrendous cost of the virus, Labor wants to punish the workers even more and rub in the fact that they are going to carry a huge debt by making that debt even greater.
The Chinese want to punish our honesty with trade restrictions, Labor wants to punish us with more debt.
So much for the claim that we’re all in this together.