Andrew Bolt: Explosive claims just shift the blame

Businessman Malcolm Broomhead blasted the federal government for the “deliberate provocation” of China but it’s China that’s been doing most the provoking.

When I hear Malcolm Broomhead rage we’re too mean to China, I’m reminded of what could be an old Chinese saying: Never trust a man making explosives for your enemy.

Oops! I don’t want to suggest for a minute that the detonators and explosives that Broomhead’s Orica company makes in China for Chinese miners might one day be used to blow up our own soldiers instead.

That’s absurd — even if Orica’s partner in China is part of the Poly Group, the state-owned defence conglomerate that started as the dictatorship’s arms manufacturer.

Nor would I suggest Broomhead is thinking more of his company’s falling share price than of his country.

It must be for our national good that Broomhead, chairman of mining, oil and gas giant Orica and board member of BHP, blasted the federal government last week.

Broomhead was furious it had axed Victoria’s go-it-alone deal with China — part of the Belt and Road Initiative that Broomhead lobbied for and which China uses to bind neighbours to its plan to make itself the greatest superpower of the 21st century.

Business identity Malcolm Broomheadblasted the Government last week.

“I just don’t understand the deliberate provocation of China which sits at odds with ‘we want to be friends’,” Broomhead raged, when it’s China that’s actually been doing most the provoking, not least by bullying Australia.

“The reality is that every time we do something, we do it in the most antagonistic way and it has got major trade implications for us.”

By “us” I wonder if Broomhead was referring to Orica and BHP specifically. But China’s fast-growing military power and aggression should worry even a China-linked manufacturer of explosives.

Yes, I get China is such a touchy bully that could punish us even more than it’s done already for defending human rights and our security. And I get that Orica and BHP could be hit.

Indeed, Orica’s share price has nearly halved in the past 18 months, thanks to the coronavirus and what it calls “trade tension” — actually China bullying Australia by attacking our coal exports, which make up 15 per cent of Orica’s operations.

And what would happen if Broomfield ever blamed China instead? Wouldn’t China punish Orica? Could it grab Orica’s 49 per cent holding in its Chinese joint venture?

I’m sure Broomhead means his words to help his country. But understand they might also help himself.