Mark McGowan canes PM’s ‘mad’ rhetoric on China

The WA Premier said comments about a potential conflict with China were ‘off the planet’ but he and the PM ‘agree to disagree.’

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan says he is concerned about the Morrison government’s rhetoric towards China, describing talk of war with the superpower as “madness”.

Mr McGowan met with Scott Morrison on Wednesday night ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to the upcoming G7 meeting in Cornwall. He told reporters on Thursday morning that the pair had had a lengthy discussion about the relationship with China and had ultimately “agreed to disagree”.

In his most impassioned comments on the China situation to date, Mr McGowan said comments in recent months from senior politicians and officials about a potential conflict with China was “off the planet”.

“All this language I see coming out of the Commonwealth government about us going to war with China, I have never heard something so insane in my life,” he said.

“The idea that somehow we should be promoting the idea of armed conflict with a superpower is madness and I don’t get why there are the senior Commonwealth government officials, why there are defence force officers, why there are senior politicians in the Liberal Party talking about this. It’s absolute madness.”

He noted that Australia had endured tariffs and trade disputes with many other nations, including the United States and the European Union, without having to resort to talk of war.

The value of goods exported to China was twenty times the value of the goods imported from China, Mr McGowan said.

“The reason we have a trade surplus is because we sell products to China,” he said. “Why should we as a beneficiary of the trading relationship, one of the only countries in the whole world that is, want to attack them on trade?”

The consequences of losing our trade relationship with China would be “absolutely catastrophic” for Australia.

“The countries that have massive trade deficits with China, if they want to take up the trade issues they should. We have a massive trade surplus with China that employs hundreds of thousands of Australians, particularly here in Western Australia,” he said.

“I don’t understand why we would be the tip of the spear in taking up trade issues when we are the beneficiaries of the trade relationship.”

WA premier Mark McGowan has attacked Scott Morrison’s stance on China. Picture: Colin Murty The Australian

He said Australia owed its post-Covid economic strength to China and its demand for Australian exports, in particular iron ore.

The price of the steelmaking ingredient has soared through $US200 a tonne over the past year, delivering a multibillion-dollar bonanza in royalties and corporate taxes for Australia.

“I’m the premier of the state that actually carries the nation’s economy,” Mr McGowan said.

“I saw the Federal treasurer Mr Frydenberg saying how great it is that Australia is doing so well economically, why does he think that is? It’s because Western Australia continues to trade through Covid with countries who buy our products, particularly when iron ore is over $200 a tonne. That’s what is supporting the national economy, and yet we have politicians who want to destroy that.”

The WA premier’s comments came as Mr Morrison told Perth radio station 6PR that while the government was willing to engage with China, the superpower had raised issues that Australia was not prepared to concede on.

“You never trade away your values and who you are in your own sovereignty, integrity, ever. And nor would any other country in the world,” Mr Morrison said.

But Mr McGowan said Australia could still keep its values without having to talk about war with China.

“We are not trading our values. We will continue to be a democracy, we will continue to be a free independent country that believes in equality, fairness and democracy. We will continue to exercise our right of free passage in the South China Sea. We will continue to take on espionage or whatever it might be from wherever it comes from. That will continue,” he said.

“But we don’t have to speculate about going to war with a superpower, and we don’t have to act against our own interest when it comes to trade.”