Scott Morrison doubles down on claim Anthony Albanese is ‘siding with China’

Scott Morrison has again taken a swipe at his opponent over China, double down on what Anthony Albanese called an “outrageous slur”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has doubled down on his claim that his opponent Anthony Albanese is “siding with China”, despite a furious response from the Labor leader at last night’s debate.

During last night’s Sky News-Courier Mail People’s Forum with a hundred undecided voters, Mr Albanese went onto the attack over a security pact the Solomon Islands had signed with China, framing it as a major foreign policy failure by the government.

Mr Morrison suggested his opponent should be criticising China instead of him, and went so far as to accuse Labor of disloyalty to Australia.

“It’s odd the Labor Party wouldn’t say China is interfering. Somehow they’re saying it’s Australia’s fault,” Mr Morrison said.

“What I don’t understand is, when something of this significance takes place, why would you take China’s side?”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has doubled down on his comments about Anthony Albanese siding with China. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Albanese called it an “outrageous slur”.

That moment came up again on Thursday afternoon as Mr Morrison faced reporters at a press conference in Brisbane.

Mr Morrison actually brought it up himself while fielding a question about when he knew about the Solomons’ pact with China.

“You said the Solomon Islands and China deal wasn’t a surprise. Zed Seselja says he found out when the draft leaked. So which is it?” asked Channel 9 reporter Eliza Edwards.

Mr Morrison responded that he’d known about “the risk of a deal such as this coming about” for a long time, but refused to specify when exactly he learned about the pact.

As his answer continued, he volunteered a defence of his jab from the previous night.

“Last night, as you would have seen, I made a couple of points and Mr Albanese took some offence. But let’s just look at the record,” the Prime Minister said.

“When our relationship with China started to descend, and when China was putting in place trade blocks on Australian product - wine and barley and various things like that - they said that was Australia’s fault, not China’s fault.

Anthony Albanese last night called the PM’s China swipe against him an ‘outrageous slur’. Picture: Jason Edwards

“When I called out China for being where the pandemic started, and said there had to be an independent investigation into the origins of Covid, apparently this was the wrong thing for us to do. They thought Labor said, that Australia was at fault in calling for that. And our government was at fault for doing that.

“When I cancelled a submarine contract for $90 billion, because it wasn’t the right submarine for Australia - and I can assure you, there’s no easy way to cancel a $90 billion submarine contract with a friend such as France. But when France attacked Australia over that decision, Labor didn’t side with Australia. They sided with the French government.

“And more recently, now we have China seeking to influence through their means. Do they blame China for doing that? Or did they use it as an opportunity to attack the government?

“So when I look at that record, on each occasion, have they backed the Australian government in standing up for Australia? Or have they run the talking points, have they run the lines of those who are seeking to criticise Australia for the important decisions that we’ve taken in our national interest?

“So that’s why I made the claim I did last night because it’s backed up by a Labor Party which has played politics with national security.”

Mr Morrison made the initial comment during the first leaders' debate at the Gabba in Brisbane. Picture: Jason Edwards / various sources / AFP

Another journalist, Sky News political editor Andrew Clennell, pushed back, pointing out that Mr Morrison was conflating criticism of himself and his government with criticism of Australia.

“If they’re critical of you, Prime Minister, you say they’re on China’s side. If they’re critical of anything your government does in this space, you say, ‘Well you must be on China’s side.’ Is that your argument?” Clennell asked.

“I’m simply saying, Andrew, that when we’ve made decisions in the national interest, and when we’ve stood up for Australia and done the right thing for Australia, the Labor Party has joined the chorus of other countries attacking Australia.”