When will Anthony Albanese be upfront with the Australian people on the security threat posed by China?
He was happy to dog whistle about Donald Trump for votes in the election campaign but refuses to speak clearly about Beijing’s strategic intentions and what they mean for Australia.
The last time the government made a serious case about the China threat was at the 2023 ALP national conference, when Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy spoke starkly about Beijing’s massive military build-up to smash criticism of AUKUS by the party’s hard left.
Two years later, that speech has curiously disappeared from the internet and the government is once again pretending there’s nothing to see here.
Albanese passed up another opportunity on Monday morning to be real with the Australian people on China in the wake of an opinion piece published in this newspaper by Beijing’s top diplomat in Canberra lecturing the government on defence spending.
Ambassador Xiao Qian, whose country is turning out submarines, warships and missiles at a frightening rate, had the gall to warn Australia that lifting defence spending to the 5 per cent agreed by NATO countries would cause tensions internationally and undermine living standards at home.
If anything, this should focus the government’s mind more clearly on the urgent need to rethink its defence budget. But the Prime Minister was having none of it.
Journalist: “We’ve seen the Chinese ambassador to Australia make comments about defence spending … this morning. What can you tell the Australian people about the military threat posed by China, and do you remain concerned about the military build-up that China is undertaking?”
Prime Minister: “The Chinese ambassador speaks for China. My job is to speak for Australia, and it’s in Australia’s national interest for us to invest in our capability and to invest in our relationships, and we’re doing just that.”
It’s no wonder the US is having second thoughts about handing over three of its Virginia-class submarines to Australia, as evidenced by its snap 30-day review of the AUKUS pact.
As the man behind the review, Elbridge Colby, warned last year: “It would be crazy for the United States to give away its single most important asset for a conflict with China over Taiwan.”
In the absence of any signal to the contrary, the US has every right to feel concerned that those submarines, if given to Australia, will sit on the sidelines in any war with China.
Labor’s obfuscation on China and its refusal to publicly accept the need for a serious boost to defence spending are not helping Albanese secure an all-important first meeting with Donald Trump.
There is no sign the government is preparing to shift its position on either issue, which will make for an uncomfortable audience with the US President if and when the Prime Minister makes it to the White House.
Penny Wong will no doubt do her diplomatic best to reassure the US that Australia remains a rock-solid ally when she meets her American counterpart, Marco Rubio, in Washington DC this week.
The problem is, she is the author of the government’s cautious language on China and an opponent of much of the Trump administration’s foreign policy agenda.
Expect more ambiguity from the government in coming weeks when Albanese travels to Beijing.
As revealed by The Australian, the Prime Minister is unlikely to get a meeting with Trump before the visit, around the middle of July.
Instead of seeing Albanese cement ties with Australia’s closest ally, Australians will watch him cosying up to Xi Jinping and sidestepping more questions on the Chinese threat.
It’s time for the Prime Minister to talk clearly about the security threats the nation faces and have an honest conversation with the public about what this means for the defence budget.
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