Philip Ruddock accuses Kristina Keneally of Chinese media scare campaign

The patron of the Liberal Party Chinese Council says Kristina Keneally is running a ‘scare campaign’ in the Chinese media.

Philip Ruddock, patron of the Liberal Party Chinese Council. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Philip Ruddock, patron of the Liberal Party Chinese Council, has launched a strong defence of the new foreign interference laws and accused Labor’s Kristina Keneally of running a “scare campaign” in the Chinese media in order to win the Bennelong by-election.

Mr Ruddock, also chairman of the advisory board of Bob Carr’s Australia China Relations Institute, said consultation was important in the wake of concerns in the Chinese community that it might be targeted by the laws.

“Am I of the view that consultation is an appropriate course? I am, and I would always encourage it,” he told The Australian, pointing to the consultation he led as a federal MP on changes to citizenship laws. It is understood there are yet to be community consultations on the new laws.

The introduction of the interference legislation and the political controversy over senator Sam Dastyari’s links to Chinese donors have sparked a diplomatic row with Beijing and warnings of retaliation from parts of the business community.

This stepped up further yesterday, with China’s official media outlet, The People’s Daily, editorialising that the Australian government and media were spreading “prejudice and bigotry”.

Ms Keneally said Malcolm Turnbull’s stance on the Chinese government would harm Liberal candidate John Alexander, the NSW seat’s former MP, and compared the Prime Minister’s rhetoric with that of One Nation’s Pauline Hanson.

Mr Ruddock said Ms Keneally’s comment was simply an ­attempt to score political points in an election, accusing her of pandering to the Chinese media. “That sounds to me like a Labor Party scare campaign that they want to run in the Chinese media,” he said.

“I would say to Kristina Keneally, does she take the view that in relation to foreign interference from whatever source that it can in fact be justified? And I would ­imagine she would say absolutely not.”

In response to China’s protests, the now Mayor of Hornsby said while it was “unfortunate” the laws were being portrayed as targeting one country, Beijing would expect Australia to protect its interests.

“China and their countries are well known to have intelligence organisations, they’re known to scrutinise what happens in their own countries of people who are coming there, and they would not be at all be surprised that we would have regard to protecting our own interests,” Mr Ruddock said.

“Once it becomes public, of course, there may be some response but I think it’s something we will work through; in time, the issues will settle down.”

After The Australian reported Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye visited Parliament House last week, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at the weekend they had made formal complaints about Mr Turnbull’s remarks about foreign interference.

The by-election in the inner northwest Sydney seat of Bennelong is this Saturday. Mr Alexander, who resigned amid the dual citizenship crisis, held the seat on a margin of 9.7 per cent.

Mr Ruddock said being “engaged positively” with China should not “be seen in any way derelict to your responsibility to Australia first and foremost”.

The People’s Daily editoria­l ­appeared to back the use of defamation suits against Australian media outlets by wealthy Chinese Australian donors.