Coronavirus Australia: bipartisan call to investigate China’s role in spread of virus

Australia will push for an independent global inquiry into China’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

Australia will push for an independent global inquiry into China’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, as Foreign Minister Marise Payne says her concerns about the communist nation’s transparency are at a high point.

The G20 is one global body being floated as a possible investigator of what China knew about the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan.

Senator Payne told ABC News on Sunday that an investigation would look into how China and the World Health Organisation handled the early stages of the pandemic and the role of wet markets in its creation.

“It’s fundamental that we identify, we determine an independent review mechanism to examine the development of this epidemic, its development into a pandemic, the crisis that is occurring internationally,” she said.

“We need to know the sorts of details that an independent review would identify for us about the genesis of the virus, about the approaches to dealing with it, and addressing it, about the openness with which information was shared, about interaction with the World Health Organisation, interaction with other international leaders. All of those sorts of things will need to be on the table.”

China has been under bipartisan pressure in Australia to be more transparent about the virus. On Sunday, Senator Payne struggled to say whether she trusted the communist regime on COVID-19.

“I trust China in terms of the work that we need to do together. The issues around the coronavirus are issues for independent review.”

Opposition health spokesman Chris Bowen called on the Morrison government to outline how such an international review of China’s handling of coronavirus would occur, and said Labor would back such an inquiry.

“That’s incumbent on the government to take their best endeavours to bring that about … It now can’t just be a talking point. It can’t be a point in an interview. It has to be made a reality,” Mr Bowen said.

“So, yes, we support it and we would certainly expect and trust that China would co-operate.” It is not clear how an independent inquiry would be undertaken due to the controversial role the WHO played in the early stages of the novel coronavirus crisis.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings said the G20 could be the body to undertake the independent inquiry, adding that the government would be punished if it did not try to hold China to account.

“It’s necessary and probably not something that our population would let the government get away with,” he said.

“Let’s do it through the G20 and make that the vehicle. Countries can contribute their best people through that.

“I have less confidence in the United Nations. China will use its power at the Security Council to impede an inquiry.”

Former foreign minister Bob Carr said Australia would need a strong economic relationship with China to recover economically and that its future place in the global power structure was unclear.

“But one thing is clear: this is the first crisis in which America has opted not to provide global leadership. In that case, it’s different from the GFC, SARS, Ebola.”