Andrew Hastie’s China criticism divides Coalition

Government ministers split over Andrew Hastie’s criticism of China amid fears for jobs.

WA Liberal MP Andrew Hastie’s criticism of China has divided Coalition ministers. Picture: AAP

Senior government ministers are publicly divided over Andrew Hastie’s criticism of China, as West Australian Premier Mark McGowan accuses the Liberal MP of jeopardising jobs in the ­resource-rich state.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton yesterday backed Mr Hastie for raising concerns about Beijing’s world view, while Finance Minister Mathias Cormann labelled the former SAS captain’s comments as “clumsy and inappropriate”.

Mr McGowan, meanwhile, slammed the WA Liberal MP for “denigrating the relationship” with China.

“It is very disappointing to see a federal Liberal MP from Western Australia jeopardise the jobs of his fellow West Australians,” Mr McGowan said.

“Mr Hastie and other Liberals should stop denigrating that ­relationship because all they are doing is running down our economy and threatening West Australian jobs.

“Our relationship with China is responsible for a quarter of our entire economy. We sell them $62 billion worth of products. Hundreds of thousands of West Australian jobs depend upon that relationship. And we have had a long-term friendly relationship with China.”

In the Nine newspapers on Thursday, Mr Hastie, who chairs the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, likened the world’s approach to handling China to the “catastrophic failure” to prevent the rise of Nazi Germany. A Chinese embassy spokesman moved quickly to “strongly deplore” Mr Hastie’s comments, which he said exposed a “Cold War mentality” and ideological bias.

Senator Cormann, the government’s most senior West Australian, yesterday said he did not agree with Mr Hastie’s crit­ique of the West’s relationship with China.

“I did not agree with that comparison. I thought it was a bit clumsy and inappropriate,” Senator Cormann told Sky News.

“Our relationship with China is a very important relationship. We have an important strategic as well as economic relationship with China. There are matters to be discussed from time to time.

“We seek to do that, from the government’s point of view, with transparency and consistency and work through any issues as they arise in the appropriate fashion, to work co-operatively with China, as we do with all of our other partners.”

Mr Dutton, however, rejected claims Mr Hastie’s comments would damage Australia’s relationship with China.

“We need to exert our sovereign right as a nation, as China does, as the US, as New Zealand, any other country would,” Mr Dutton told Nine’s Today program.

“We need to recognise the fact there is a lot happening in the cyber space at the moment, foreign interference is at an all-time high in our country.”