Andrew Bolt: Anthony Albanese’s Solomon Islands stance shows he’s out of his depth

As China signed a worrying security pact with the Solomon Islands, Labor has revealed how it would handle a real foreign affairs crisis — and it’s scary.

Labor has just told us how it would handle a real foreign affairs crisis that’s just blown up with China — and I’m scared.

Yep, my friend Kimberley Kitching, the Labor senator, was right when she warned me just five days before her death last month that an Albanese government would be weak on China.

These guys sound completely out of their depth.

China on Tuesday signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands, within missile range of Brisbane and Sydney.

Labor immediately blamed the Morrison government. “This is a massive foreign policy failure,” raged Labor leader Anthony Albanese. “The worst foreign policy failure since World War II,” agreed Senator Penny Wong, who would be his Foreign Affairs Minister.

Senator Penny Wong blamed the Solomons deal on Scott Morrison for ‘ignoring what Pacific leaders have said’. Picture: Gary Ramage

And, sure, it’s terrible news. Australia is being surrounded by ports owned, built or used by China’s fast-growing navy, and the Solomon Islands has now agreed to let China’s navy dock there, too, and get “logistical replenishment”. China can also send in its soldiers to protect Chinese assets, if the Solomons agree.

The Solomons says there will be no Chinese naval base, but there’s zero doubt that this is China’s long-term aim.

So this is a genuine threat, but what would a Labor government have done differently?

And that’s when Labor starts scaring me.

Let’s start with its most obvious idiocy. Wong blamed the Solomons deal on Prime Minister Scott Morrison for “ignoring what Pacific leaders have said”.

“Pacific leaders themselves have said climate change is their No.1 economic and national security issue. Did we do anything about that?”

What!? This has nothing to do with the global warming scare, which Pacific leaders have exploited to extort guilt money from the West. An Auckland University study confirms nearly half the low-lying atoll islands are actually growing, not drowning, and another 43 per cent are stable.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has raged that the Solmon Islands deal is ‘a massive foreign policy failure’. Picture: Toby Zerna

And if “climate change is their No.1 economic and national security issue”, then why would the Solomons side instead with China, the world’s biggest emitter — and growing?

Challenged on this, Wong blathered: “The government should take responsibility rather than wanting to have a fight about Chinese climate policy.” Why?

Pardon? Australia shouldn’t challenge China on its refusal to cut its own massive emissions, while we cripple ourselves by cutting tiny ours?

Truth is, a Labor government could preach its global warming religion until the coconuts fall from the trees, but it would not change the mind of the Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

China didn’t get this security deal because it promised to change from red to green. It’s accused instead of simply filling the pockets of Solomons politicians with cash, in a way Australia never could.

Opposition leader Matthew Wale, for instance, claimed Sogavare won a non-confidence motion in Parliament last December after China sent money to save him. MP Silas Tausinga said he and three others were offered $30,000 each from Chinese funds controlled by Sogavare if they voted for him. Celsus Irokwato Talifilu, a political adviser to a provincial Premier, said Chinese companies were even “housing government ministers in gated estates” with armed Chinese guards.

There are very good reasons why Morrison did not go to visit the Solomons himself, like a Big White Colonialist demanding obedience. Picture: AAP

So what else would Labor have done differently?

Wong accused Morrison of “going missing” when news of this deal was first leaked last August, and Albanese said he would visit the Solomons once he became Prime Minister: “I would be engaging with the leadership of the Solomons”.

Another mistake. Morrison had actually consulted other leaders and tried to talk Sogavare out of this deal, and sent our top spy chiefs to explain the dangers.

There are very good reasons why Morrison did not go there himself, like a Big White Colonialist demanding obedience — and why Prime Minister Albanese shouldn’t, either. That would just set up our Prime Minister for international humiliation.

Wong also blasted Morrison for waiting until last week to send our Minister for the Pacific, Zed Seselja, to the Solomon Islands to try to head off the deal: “The fact that we send a junior minister at the last minute. You know who the US is sending? Kurt Campbell!”

In fact, Australia sending a minister last week is more significant than the US sending just the US president’s advisor on the Pacific — and a week later.

But what does it say that even the US could not stop this deal?

This is not Australia’s failure, but the Solomons’ shame. Worse, it’s another sign of America’s decline and the Chinese dictatorship’s sinister rise.

That’s the real issue here, and no global warming promises from Labor will save us.