Anti-China talk hurts us: Fortescue Metals’ Andrew Forrest

Billionaire Andrew Forrest has urged Australian politicians to stop their anti-Chinese rhetoric.

Andrew Forrest says the Chinese want to be treated with more respect

Billionaire Andrew Forrest has urged Australian politicians to stop their anti-Chinese rhetoric, warning it will affect future business talks between the two ­countries.

Mr Forrest, who met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, told The Australian that whether it was the Greens, Labor or the Liberals, appealing to the “paranoid” voter with anti-China rhetoric was incredibly costly to everyone living in Australia.

“China has choices like Australia has choices,” he said.

“They don’t have to procure from us. They don’t have to invite us up to their country, and their economy will dwarf the US economy one day.”

His comments came as former West Australian premier Colin Barnett warned that relations with China were at a “low point”. Mr Barnett, who quit politics last year, led WA through a major phase of investment from China, during which exports grew dramatically.

“The Chinese just want to be treated with a bit more respect than they feel they are receiving,” he said. “With federal politicians from both sides and particularly the Prime Minister lashing out at foreign donations and the like, and some of the language used, they would have expected concerns like that to be conveyed in a more gentle and diplomatic way.”

Concerns about the strained relationship between the Australian and Chinese governments dominated talks this week at the annual Australia-China Business Leaders Dialogue, a longstanding event championed by Mr Forrest that is held alongside the Boao Forum for Asia.

China is Australia’s largest two-way trading partner, accounting for 30 per cent of Australian exports and 18 per cent of all imports into Australia.

Australian business leaders at the talks included Woodside chief Peter Coleman, Australia Post head Christine Holgate and AMP boss Craig Meller. Mr Forrest said Australian business leaders at the meeting struggled to defend some of the statements that had been made by all sides of politics.

“Each of the political parties have tried to score minuscule non-decided votes by creating China fear and that carries a cost to every single Australian,” Mr Forrest said.

The lack of representation by senior Australian government ministers at the Boao forum in Hainan, which featured a landmark speech by Mr Xi on Tuesday, has been widely noted by the Australian delegates at the ­conference.

Australian Institute of Company Directors chairman Elizabeth Proust said Australia’s place in the world was in the region, and the nation’s politicians needed to understand where Australia’s strategic interests lay.

“That means balancing what we want to do in the region with our trade relations with China,” Ms Proust said yesterday.

“It’s a fairly nuanced approach, but the Foreign Minister (Julie Bishop) is very experienced and she will hopefully take the lead in Cabinet.

“You have to be able to have grown-up discussions on issues with allies and with countries who feel more neutral about us. It’s all about diplomacy.” The Australian reported last week that Western Australia’s Regional Development and Agriculture Minister, Alannah MacTiernan, a former Labor federal MP, could not get a visa to attend the conference, which she blamed on souring relations between China and the Turnbull government.

The government has played down the concerns but one senior source said Australian ministers did not attend the forum because they weren’t invited by the Chinese government.

Mr Forrest said other countries had political representation at the event — which he has been heavily involved with for 10 years — talking up their local companies to Chinese business and government officials.

“Australian companies did not have that luxury. We had no minister here and you have to wonder why that is,” he said.

“I am representing Australian industry and Australian people, saying to the Chinese we have a fantastic relationship with China at the working level, you can trust us, we have a fair-go character that suits China.

“I’m then simply looking back at both sides of government saying ‘stop trying to score points off China, it is doing us no good up here’.”

Additional reporting: Richard Gluyas

Sarah Jane Tasker travelled to the Boao Forum for Asia as a guest of Fortescue Metals.