Former PM Morrison says Aussies should be ‘troubled’ by Albo’s response to Chinese gunboat diplomacy

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has condemned PM Anthony Albanese’s response to bullying by Chinese warships off the Australian coast.

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has condemned what he claims is a “hesitant and passive” response by Anthony Albanese to “bullying” from Chinese warships off the Australian coast, declaring the country must be “resolute” in its dealings with Beijing.

Mr Morrison, whose criticisms of the Chinese government during his prime ministership resulted in Australia being hit with punishing tariffs on wine, barley and other goods, said US President Donald Trump’s administration would have also noticed Australia’s weak reaction to Chinese provocation.

“We are in an alliance with the US and it has put us in a special category, one where you cannot sit on the fence,” Mr Morrison said.

Three Chinese warships have spent the past two weeks prowling off the coast, and conducting live fire exercises without the usual 24 to 48-hour warning period.

Thirty minutes after the live fire began a Virgin Airlines pilot picked up a low-frequency radio warning as the ships came into view in the middle of the Tasman and raised the alarm.

Ex-PM Scott Morrison has criticised the Anthony Albanese’s handling of the Chinese warships issue.

Airservices Australia CEO Rob Sharp told Senate estimates almost 50 commercial flights were diverted last Friday following the warning, with the warships live firing 300 nautical miles off the east coast.

Mr Albanese said on Friday that China’s actions were “within” international law, but his government had “protested and made our position clear that more notice should have been given.”

“This is basically about the Chinese showing their force and showing they can go where they want to go when they want to go. They keep doing this until someone says no,” Mr Morrison told The Saturday Telegraph.

“Australia, as always, has to be resolute in its responses to these things.”

Mr Morrison said Anthony Albanese’s “hesitation and passivity” in response to the “bullying behaviour of the Chinese” would give Australians “every right to be troubled.”

“Not making excuses for them (the Chinese) would be a pretty good start,” he said, referring to Mr Albanese initially playing down the seriousness of the incident.

Has US President Donald Trump noticed the PM’s handling of the warships issue?

Mr Morrison said his response would have been tougher, sending the Australian navy to closely monitor the three Chinese warships rather than leaving the task to one lone New Zealand ship.

“You would have been sweating on every brief, as you awaited updates on what the plan was up to,” he said.

“This was not business as usual. It is not unreasonable to expect the Prime Minister to have been acquainted with every detail of this event.”

During his time in office Mr Morrison took a tough line with China, calling the Asian superpower out on the origins of Covid, which resulted in Beijing slapping Australia with harsh economic tariffs.

The retribution cut Australian wine sales to China from $1.24 billion in 2019 to less than $1 million in 2023.

Domestic barley, lobster, cotton beef and lamb industries were also rocked, forcing producers to find other export markets.

When Labor won power it moved to get the trade relationship with China back on track, but Mr Morrison claimed Xi Jinping’s government didn’t need to be rewarded for removing the tariffs.

US President Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

“As for dropping illegal trade sanctions used to try and coerce Australia, you don’t thank someone for stopping punching you in the face,” he said.

“The government’s approach to China changed after the election, but in so doing if they thought they were going to get a different China, they were misinformed.

Mr Morrison said China “has been on a charm offensive towards the Albanese government”, which he claims was a result of “the complete failure of their bullying tactics of coercion and wolf warrior diplomacy” on his own administration.

“Yet this has not stopped the Chinese government from pushing the envelope with their old playbook of gunboat diplomacy.

“China wants to completely dominate the Indo-Pacific. They want to dominate the region. That does not change however many photos you have taken with them or however many nice moments you share in Beijing.”

He said the Trump administration would have noticed the weak response but had not offered any criticism because of the “strong respect for Australia” stemming from the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal.

“I don’t think they would be saying anything publicly, I think they will continue to show respect for the relationship and continue to extend their professional courtesy,” he said.

“The US would want us to stand up to China because we understand it is in our own best interests, that’s what good allies are expected to do.”

Cartoonist Warren Brown’s light-hearted view on the Chinese warships issue.

Meanwhile the US has criticised NATO countries for failing to keep up spending on defence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned European countries for using the US as a security blanket for defence while spending on their own social care.

“They have plenty of money. They should be investing that in their national security, and they’re not. You have countries spending 1.5 per cent, 1 per cent of their economy, and we just can’t keep subsidising that. It’s not fair and it’s not sustainable,” he said this week.

In response, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to increase spending on defence to 2.6 per cent of gross domestic product by 2027 and 3 per cent by the end of the decade.

Mr Morrison said that meant Australia also needed to increase its spending on defence to three per cent by 2030.

Currently it stands at just under 2 per cent, with Labor cutting a swath of defence assets to cover the cost of the nuclear submarines including retiring an ANZAC class frigate and two mine hunters.

Strategic Analysis Australia director Peter Jennings said the Americans would be looking closely at their Australian ally and be troubled by the weak response to Chinese ships prowling off the coast.

“Trump’s narrative towards NATO can equally be applied to Australia,” he said.

“The lesson is that America will support allies that support themselves and if we make more of an effort to be a better ally we will have America’s support.

“The days of freeloading on America’s coat tails are gone.”

Former US ambassador Arthur Sinodinos said Australia needed to be “clear-eyed” about China’s objectives.

“This is a reminder that the world is a very volatile palace … it’s a reminder to always be clear-eyed on what China is about,” he said.

Mr Sinodinos said Australia should not be rethinking AUKUS, but it was important to look at other defence measures as well.

“Clearly there is a debate in Australia about Trump at the moment, but if we value the alliance we have to find ways to keep the US engaged to show it’s in their interest.

“We have a new customer, you have to push their buttons.”

Australian Strategic Policy Institute border policy expert John Coyne said Australia needed a major national security strategy that goes beyond the existing defence strategy.

“Australia is in a very complex unprecedented period of time in terms of strategic uncertainty, but we also have a cost-of-living crisis,” he said.

“A simplistic percentage of how much we should increase defence spending, I don’t think that’s helpful.

“The real issue is we need a national security strategy that clearly outlines how we are building everything from national resilience to defence and capability.”

In the aftermath of a bruising week on national security and defence for Anthony Albanese, his government quickly announced it was forking out $313.5 m on a maintenance contract for the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter fleet.

“It demonstrates our government’s commitment to providing the ADF with the resources it needs to keep Australians safe,” Defence Capability Minister Pat Conroy said on Friday.

A spokeswoman for Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government was spending $11bn to boost the Royal Australian Navy’s surface fleet to 26 surface combat vessels including 11 new general purpose frigates.

“The Albanese government is acquiring the cutting-edge naval capabilities that we need for the future, as well as plugging the capability gap left by the Coalition after a decade of decay and inaction,” she said.

Originally published as Former PM Morrison says Aussies should be ‘troubled’ by Albo’s response to Chinese gunboat diplomacy