Coalition turns on Anthony Albanese over claims on China

The Coalition has lashed Anthony Albanese’s suggestion it was responsible for the breakdown of the nation’s ties with Beijing.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Coalition has lashed Anthony Albanese’s suggestion it was responsible for the breakdown of the nation’s ties with Beijing, while backing Labor’s efforts to bring an end to Chinese trade bans on Australian exports.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham angrily rejected the Prime Minister’s assertion at the Woodford Folk Festival this week that the Coalition “chose to not have a single conversation with China – our major trading partner – for the entire last term they were in power”.

Mr Albanese made the comment despite earlier blaming China for the breakdown in relations between the countries.

Amid a thaw in Australia-China relations following Mr Albanese’s November meeting with Xi Jinping, the Prime Minister said on Wednesday he was pursuing a “constructive” relationship with China, “undoing so much of the damage done by the LNP government”.

But Senator Birmingham accused Mr Albanese of peddling “falsehoods”, saying it was China that had cut ties with Australia, rebuffing “multiple attempts from Australia for dialogue”.

“Mr Albanese won the election and has subsequently enjoyed bipartisan support for his government’s engagement with China, so there’s no need for him to engage in lies and the politicisation of such a sensitive foreign affairs matter,” he said.

Senator Birmingham said Australia’s political leaders should take care “not to rewrite the history of the Chinese government’s failed attempts at coercion”.

“It is to the credit of Australia, including the new Labor government, that the attempted coercion has been resisted with the national security policies of the former Coalition government all retained,” he said.

“Mr Albanese shouldn’t be downplaying Australia’s national resilience just to take a cheap political potshot.”

His comments came after Trade Minister Don Farrell told The Australian the government was prepared to withdraw two World Trade Organisation cases against China if it showed “goodwill” in dropping its trade bans against Australia.

Senator Farrell, likely to visit China in February for talks with counterpart Wang Wentao, said Australia had made it clear to the Chinese government it would prefer to resolve the wine and barley WTO cases “by discussion” rather than arbitration.

“We believe we’ve got very strong cases. Obviously, if China was to drop the bans on barley and wine, well then, the circumstances change,” he said.

Nationals leader David Littleproud welcomed the push for a negotiated settlement, saying it was “the right thing“ to do.

“We think this is a positive step,” he told Sky News.

“I think the new government has taken those opportunities but stood firm on the principles of China interfering with our democracy or our sovereignty.”

After Penny Wong’s pre-Christmas visit to Beijing, there are expectations Mr Albanese will make a trip to China soon. But he told Seven’s Sunrise program he had no plans yet.

“I think there’s been very constructive engagement … certainly the meeting that I had with President Xi was very positive, and we’ll wait and see in regards to a visit by myself,” he said. “I expect there will be a meeting between our trade ministers. We’ll wait and see what comes out of that.”

He said “a whole lot of jobs” were dependent on the Australia-China relationship.