Kerry Stokes says Andrew Hastie did more harm than good with China remarks

Media mogul Kerry Stokes says Lib MP’s comparison of the rise of China to Nazis was “intemperate’’.

Seven Group chairman Kerry Stokes says Australia needs to be more careful in its judgments of China. Picture: Hollie Adams

Media mogul Kerry Stokes has labelled Liberal MP Andrew Hastie’s comparison of the rise of China to Nazi Germany “intemperate” and says we cannot give Australia’s biggest trading partner a “black eye”.

Mr Stokes — the executive chairman of Seven Group Holdings, which own the Seven Network and The West Australian newspaper — said he worried as much about the influence of the United States as he did about China, and said Australia needed to be more careful in its judgments of the Asian superpower.

Andrew Hastie’s remarks about China has opened up cabinet divisions. Picture: Gary Ramage

The Seven Group chairman also called this morning for a wider look at Australia’s security laws in the wake of raids on journalists, and spoke of his concern for his friend James Packer after the casino mogul’s company had been hit with accusations of dealing with Chinese crime gangs.

Mr Stokes’s dramatic intervention in the China debate comes after cabinet divisions opened up over an opinion piece by Mr Hastie last week which warned Australia’s response to the rise of China was similar to France’s to Germany before the Second World War.

“Mr Hastie’s comments were totally intemperate and did more harm than good,” Mr Stokes told ABC radio.

“Australia’s entire prosperity relies on China’s imports from our country. We need to be a little more careful in our judgment.

“It’s important that Australia retain its sovereignty of course. But at the end of the day, we’re a trading nation and we rely for our prosperity and our standard of living on selling goods to the rest of the world.

“If you’re going to sell goods to the rest of the world, I don’t think you should be going around giving them a black eye at the same time.”

Mr Hastie’s comments led to rebukes from Trade Minister Simon Birmingham and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, but he received the backing of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and other Coalition MPs on the powerful joint parliamentary committee on intelligence and security.

It has opened up a wider debate about China’s domestic influence and our response as the Asian superpower becomes more assertive regionally, most notably in Hong Kong and the Pacific.

Mr Stokes this morning said he was not more worried about China’s influence in Australia as he was about the influence of traditional allies like the US and Great Britain.

“I worry about the influence of China, America and England. Let’s not draw the line at China,” he said.

“I worry about the influence of America as much as I worry about the influence of China.”

Mr Stokes also spoke to the ongoing press freedom debate after media chiefs appeared at a parliamentary inquiry — led by Mr Hastie — into whether national security laws needed changes to protect freedom of the press.

The Seven chairman said he believed there was strong freedom of speech in Australia, but that the recent suite of national security law revisions needed to be looked at as a whole.

“The new laws that have been passed are very prohibitive and if we’re going to look at freedom of the press and freedom of rights, we actually need to look back at the total package of security law changes,” he said.

“And say whether or not that was the right thing or whether that’s appropriate now.”

Mr Stokes said the joint parliamentary committee for intelligence and security was an appropriate body to consider freedom of press concerns, but he did not hold out much hope the inquiry would lead to results.

“No inquiry ever has,” he told ABC radio.

“I think they’re an appropriate body to make recommendations but at the end of the day, it’s a very complex question.”

Mr Stokes — one of Australia’s most powerful and well-connected men — also spoke about his friend Mr Packer. The Seven chairman said he did not “see a lot in” recent Nine-owned newspaper reports in Crown’s relations with Chinese crime figures.

He also said he has not spoken to Mr Packer about the reports.

“I haven’t spoken to James for a month or two. I’m obviously concerned for him, I hope he’s okay. I’ll touch base with him shortly,” he told ABC radio.

“I read it (the Crown Casino-Chinese crime coverage), I didn’t see a lot in it, it was a lot of old reporting from what I saw.

“It’s probably the most regulated industry in the world and I think the oversight by various government authorities ensures that if there ever is any involvement of improper people, it’ll be picked up pretty quickly.”