Defence Minister Peter Dutton labelled ‘biggest threat’ to Australia over China comments

Peter Dutton has been described as the “biggest threat” to Australia and accused of using a Chinese intelligence ship to win votes.

Premier Mark McGowan has labelled Defence Minister Peter Dutton the “biggest threat” to Australia and accused him of using the presence of a Chinese intelligence ship to win votes ahead of Saturday’s election.

Mr Dutton was in WA last week when he held a press conference to reveal the ship was off the coast of Exmouth and labelled it “aggressive”, but the Premier said on Monday that Mr Dutton’s description was “inflammatory”.

Mr McGowan, a former naval legal officer, told reporters that it was common for foreign warships to transit through exclusive economic zones.

“We do it in the waters of China. The United States does it in the waters of China. We do it all over the world because that’s the law of the sea,” he said.

“The Prime Minister said something similar. All this rhetoric by Mr Dutton is just politics, and his language around war and ‘we’ve got to be prepared to fight’, all this sort of stuff that’s gone on for the last year, is highly dangerous.

“It’s against the national interest, and it’s actually inflammatory and unnecessary, and I just think he’s the biggest threat to national security.”

Premier Mark McGowan made his comments while campaigning with federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese in Perth on Monday. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Mr McGowan was also critical of Mr Dutton labelling the ship’s presence as “aggressive”.

“If we’re going to allege that it’s an aggressive act, other countries can allege that about us,” the Premier said.

“So I just think we need to be very careful about language.

“Otherwise, you’re essentially giving other countries the opportunity to say the same thing about us.”

Mr McGowan further noted the federal government had known about the vessel for about one week before Mr Dutton’s press conference and said there had been a similar ship off the coast of Queensland last year.

“Mr Dutton was just trying to stir up fear and all that sort of thing to try and win votes,” Mr McGowan said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has not used the same language as the Defence Minister, noting the ship had not breached any international laws, while experts have also described the activity as standard.

This undated handout photo released by the Australian Defence Force shows a Chinese intelligence ship sailing off the northwest shelf of Australia. Picture: Australian Defence Force/AFP

Mr McGowan has been repeatedly critical of Mr Dutton over his commentary about China.

The Premier announced a $5.7bn surplus last Thursday, largely fuelled by the mining industry and trade with China, saying he did not understand why Mr Dutton would talk about “war” with Beijing, which he described as “frightening”.

“I think it’s grossly irresponsible to use those sorts of words,” Mr McGowan said.

Last Friday, he was questioned about it again and added: “I don’t understand why (in) the environment we’re in someone like the Defence Minister of Australia would be so nutty as to say things like that.”

Mr Dutton hit back later on Friday, saying he was standing up for Australia’s values and his “beef” was with both the Chinese and Russian leadership.

He also claimed the Premier was resorting to a personal attack in the lead-up to the election.