Peta Credlin: Scott Morrison’s problem is no longer COVID-19, it’s Dan Andrews
While the Prime Minister is trying to steer us out of the havoc wreaked by the coronavirus, Victorian premier Dan Andrews is busy getting into bed with China, writes Peta Credlin.
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It doesn’t matter where you’re reading this column today because Victoria’s move to sign a debt deal with China impacts us all.
In the same week that Beijing took another step towards ending Hong Kong’s freedom with new laws cracking down on democracy protests and the criminalisation of any disrespect of China’s symbols, Labor Premier Daniel Andrews doubled down on his commitment to sign up to China’s trophy Belt and Road initiative even though Labor’s federal leader, Anthony Albanese, said last week that Belt and Road would never be endorsed by a future Labor government in Canberra.
So not only is Andrews undermining the national government by striking out with his own foreign policy, he’s also splitting his own party and making it look like an apologist for the Chinese communist regime.
It’s hard for Australia to be a self-respecting country if we don’t speak with one voice on the world stage.
It’s one thing for the states to run their own race on schools and hospitals because the Constitution does not reserve these powers to the Commonwealth. But it’s quite out-of-line for a state to upstage Canberra on foreign policy.
Prior to federation, the states had their own immigration policies and even maintained their own modest armed forces. Queensland went as far as trying to annex part of PNG in 1883, until overruled by the British government. But the whole point of federation was to give the new Commonwealth of Australia more weight in the world by ending petty state differences.
Our constitution, in fact, is crystal clear: Section 51 (1) gives the Commonwealth, the national parliament and government, power over “trade and commerce with other countries”.
And if that’s not enough, section 51 (29) gives the Commonwealth, power over “external affairs” or foreign affairs as we’d call it today. So what on earth is Victoria doing: not only entering into MOUs with China but maintaining a network of 22 overseas offices to “maximise … the government’s broader economic, social and sustainability objectives”?
You’d think the 100 plus Australian embassies and consulates around the world would be more than enough, but clearly not.
Maybe a state subscribing to a motherhood statement with China might have been harmless enough when China was going out of its way to seem a good international citizen, during the era of “hide and bide”: hiding its strength and biding its time.
Perhaps it could be dismissed as akin to local councils creating sister-city relationships to give mayors an excuse for taxpayer-funded overseas trips. But all that should have changed once China began transforming itself from a trading opportunity to a strategic rival.
The corona crisis has alerted people to the true nature of the Chinese regime: secretive, oppressive, and bent on domination.
When the virus first became rampant in Wuhan, it arrested and humiliated whistleblowing doctors and consistently denied there was a problem.
Not only is Beijing intent on crushing Hong Kong, but it’s ramping up threats to retake Taiwan by force. It’s fortified the sea lanes north of Singapore, thrown a million Uighurs into re-education camps, and has introduced a hi-tech version of Big Brother to spy on its own people.
Belt and Road is part of China’s long-term global strategy: it’s essentially a soft-loans scheme, peddled to the governments of weak and vulnerable countries, like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and PNG, offering their leaders the chance to fund prestige projects, without the usual scrutiny and transparency attached to loans from bodies like the World Bank.
As the overblown rhetoric about accepting “guidance” from China suggests, it’s a modern version of the old tributary relationship that Chinese emperors had with subservient neighbours. But that’s what Victoria has signed up for, presumably in the hope of getting Chinese money, Chinese engineering firms, and Chinese workers to build infrastructure in Victoria, as part of the $24.5 billion debt splurge the Andrews government has also just authorised, on top of another recent increase of $25 billion in debt. Just look at those increases – $50 billion – is it any wonder Victoria is attracted to a Beijing lending scheme with minimal transparency?
On Friday, the Prime Minister made the so-called National Cabinet permanent in bid to ensure that all the governments of Australia would work together to address important national issues. People are rightly sick of the blame game between the feds and the states going off on different tangents on health, education and infrastructure. But how can we possibly expect more unity on schools and hospitals when we can’t even get a united front on China?
And if Victoria is allowed to have a separate relationship with China, what’s to stop other states having their own separate positions on climate change, for instance, or refugees? It’s vital we make the federation work better but wouldn’t it make more sense to have the Commonwealth and the states stick to the jobs the constitution gave them rather than constantly meddling in each other’s business?
Scott Morrison has shown great leadership on the health crisis by closing our national borders and encouraging the states to ramp up their health response. But getting states to shut things down has been a whole lot easier than getting them to open up again.
Right now, the only area of agreement seems to be where the Commonwealth is writing big cheques. So the test will come with this new permanent National Cabinet when tough decisions have to be made, not just ones where money buys consensus.
On matters of principle, like Victoria’s foreign policy move to sign this secret Belt and Road deal, what’s the point of having a national government if it can’t crack down on any state that’s at risk of becoming an economic colony of China? It’s time for the Prime Minister to act.
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For many of us, Monday morning will feel different.
For 20 plus years I’ve started my day just after dawn with a dose of common sense from Alan Jones.
“What’s Alan on about today?” was the corridor call around Parliament House from the left and the right as we all turned the dial for his take on whatever issue preoccupied Canberra; as essential as the newspaper headlines or the latest round of internal polls.
Forever the teacher, remade as the consummate broadcaster, his art is to take the complex and make it well-understood, but never to dumb it down. The audience is smart, they pick up arrogance quickly and for all the charges thrown at him by his critics, this isn’t one.
Like the best politicians, Alan Jones genuinely loves people. And always alive to the pathos of the human condition, he revels in its triumphs, and joys too.
I only know some of his kindness and good works but what I know would put a charity to shame.
We will never see his like on radio again and for that we will be the poorer.
I am proud to call him mentor and friend.