Peta Credlin: There is no bigger issue than national security at the federal election

The trouble with Labor on national security is that it’s not just the key leaders that we’re relying on, it’s the opportunists behind him that are a real cause of concern, writes Peta Credlin.

Just because Anthony Albanese is a decent patriotic Australian doesn’t mean that an Albanese government would keep our country strong and safe.

Sure, he says he supports the AUKUS deal to get nuclear subs and, yes, he says he supports the government’s successful border protection policy. But we’ve heard that from Labor leaders before, like Kevin Rudd’s claim that he’d turn illegal boats around – and we know how that panned out.

The trouble with a Labor government on national security is that it’s not just the key leaders that we’re relying on, like Albanese and his deputy Richard Marles, it’s the opportunists like shadow home affairs Minister Kristina Keneally and the likes of Labor Deputy Senate President Sue Lines, who has had to be rebuked by her Senate leader for accusing Israel of “apartheid”.

Labor is a big concern when it comes to national security, writes Peta Credlin. Picture: Tim Hunter.

To know what a political party really stands for, look at what it does rather than what it says. In 2008, the Rudd government’s defence white paper said that our strategic situation was rapidly worsening and that we urgently needed a fleet of 12 “regionally superior” submarines.

Not only were no submarines ordered but, under Labor, Australia’s defence spending dropped to just 1.6 per cent of GDP, the lowest since 1938. Labor cut funding to our security and intelligence agencies and presided over a catastrophic loss of sovereignty on our borders because Labor’s hard left asserted control. By pandering to people smugglers, and failing to go back to the policies that worked, they created the circumstances where more than a thousand boat people died at sea.

Chris Bowen, Tony Burke and Brendan O’Connor, the ministers who were complicit in this disaster, are still there and set to be key frontbenchers if Albanese forms government.

SPeta Credlin

It’s not fair to blame the Opposition Leader for former senator Sam Dastyari, a renegade who seems to have supported Beijing’s position in the South China Sea after receiving large

donations from Chinese businessmen, but the China risk hasn’t gone away, with recent confirmation that our spy agency foiled a plot in which they tried to infiltrate NSW Labor.

But Albanese is going to have trouble controlling hugely influential Labor luminaries Paul Keating and Bob Carr, who consistently say that Beijing’s bullying is somehow our fault for not being understanding enough of Chinese sensitivities and being too close to Washington.

Of course national security bosses like ASIO head Mike Burgess and former ASIO head Dennis Richardson would like defence and national security policy to be bipartisan and debate to be conducted by insiders behind closed doors, because they have to work with both sides. Yet what’s the point of having an election if the most important challenge facing our country can’t be openly discussed and if both sides’ record can’t be held up to scrutiny?

National security has been one of Scott Morrison’s strengths, writes Peta Credlin. Picture: Glenn Campbell

For all the Morrison government’s disappointments, the Coalition’s national security record is close to stellar. Under Tony Abbott, the illegal migrant boats were stopped, and defence spending boosted to 2 per cent-plus of GDP. Australia was the first to keep the Chinese telco giant Huawei out of vital national infrastructure and many other countries have since followed.

PM Morrison had the courage to call for an impartial international investigation into the real genesis of the Wuhan virus; and didn’t flinch when China boycotted some $20bn worth of our exports, showing the world how to stand up to economic intimidation.

But for us, the Quad might not have been revitalised.

Then there’s Morrison’s crowning achievement, AUKUS, even though there’s still much work to be done to actually get nuclear subs in the water.

Maybe the hothouse of parliament was not the best place to have a constructive debate about national security on the eve of an election, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be front and centre in the campaign.

To my mind, there is no more important issue right now. Make no mistake, if Labor wins, it won’t just be the communists in Beijing wondering about new opportunities, but the people smugglers in Jakarta too.

WATCH PETA ON CREDLIN ON SKY NEWS, WEEKNIGHTS AT 6PM