Andrews government minister Danny Pearson refuses to condemn China tweet

The Labor minister who played a major role in the Belt and Road deal with China refuses to condemn the offensive picture.

The Andrews government minister who played a key role in negotiations with China over Victoria’s Belt and Road deal has refused to condemn Chinese government official Zhao Lijian’s tweet of a doctored image depicting a grinning Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to the throat of an Afghan child.

As parliamentary secretary to Premier Daniel Andrews, Danny Pearson travelled to China twice in 2019 – initially by himself in September, and then alongside the Premier the following month where they met with senior Chinese government representatives and signed a Belt and Road Initiative framework agreement.

Victorian Labor MP Danny Pearson. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Holding a press conference in his current role as minister for creative industries on Wednesday, Mr Pearson declined to comment when asked whether he condemned the tweet.

Asked for his view on Mr Pearson’s refusal to comment, Mr Andrews, who described the tweet as “beyond the pale” and “appalling”, said Mr Pearson had “no responsibilities for those matters”.

“He’s the assistant treasurer, minister for government services and minister for creative industries.

“That’s the responsibilities he has. I’ve not seen his comments, I don’t know the details of the question that he was asked. I think I’ve made the government’s position very clear.”

Asked whether he would counsel Mr Pearson, Mr Andrews said he would not.

“I don’t think I’d waste my time. That’s a trivial matter, with the greatest of respect,” he said.

“I haven’t seen his comments, I’ve just given you some pretty frank and clear answers, you’ve invited me to go a bit further, I haven’t, and I don’t necessarily think I’m going to spend every day before you guys interpreting every word that comes out of every other minister’s mouth, that’s not, I think, where we’ve got to.”

Asked about Mr Pearson’s trips to China, Mr Andrews said: “Yeah, he’s been to China, many times. Many of my colleagues have been to China.”

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

Asked about whether Mr Pearson had accompanied him to China to negotiate the Belt and Road deal, Mr Andrews hit back at a journalist, saying: “And what’s the relevance of that?”

The journalist said he had simply wanted to check the record.

“Check, check away. Honestly,” Mr Andrews said.

Earlier this year The Australian revealed Mr Pearson had given a speech in state parliament lauding China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and claiming Australia was “fortunate” China’s reaction had “given us time” to prepare for the pandemic.

Leaked Chinese documents made public this week revealed Chinese authorities initially tried to cover up the severity of COVID-19, with the official public number of confirmed new coronavirus cases in February in Hubei province, where the virus was first detected, less than half the number shown in Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention documents.

Andrews to stick with Belt and Road deal

Mr Andrews described Chinese government official Zhao Lijian’s tweet of a doctored image depicting a grinning Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to the throat of an Afghan child as “appalling” and “beyond the pale”.

However, the Victorian Premier called on the federal government and China to “refocus on trying to repair” the relationship between the two countries.

“I had a discussion with the Prime Minister about this yesterday. That’s just beyond the pale. It’s wrong. I condemn it,” Mr Andrews said of the tweet.

“That’s no way to run a productive partnership, and I’d simply say that the time has come surely now for everyone to take a breath, to sit down and to work through the issues.

“This is not just our biggest customer, but it is all about jobs. We need a good relationship, but it has to be a fair and respectful one.

“That’s the relationship that I’ve always tried to build with China and the Prime Minister and I talked about that yesterday.

“But there’s no place for commentary like that, there’s no place for social media posts like that. That’s simply wrong, and I would have thought that the relationship was much more important for both Australia, and China, than to allow it to get to that point.

“I think we, all of us, need to work as hard as we can to get to the bottom of this and to and to start to repair and to rebuild.

“That (tweet) was appalling and I condemn it, but we all need to be, having said that, we all need to I think refocus on trying to repair this partnership, because it’s very important to us.”

Asked whether he was saying that the Morrison government had allowed the relationship with China to deteriorate, Mr Andrews said: “I’m not saying that at all. I’m not inviting you to interpret it.”

“What I’ve said is as plain as I can be: wrong, shouldn’t have happened, there’s no place for that sort of stuff, and I think we’re allowed to reflect on how it is the relationship’s got to this place, and we should all, I think all of us, us and China, should reflect on the fact that this is a relationship that was once strong, and it can be strong again, and we’ll need to work through these issues.”

Asked how Australia could reset a relationship with a regime that had sanctioned such a tweet, Mr Andrews said he would not cut across federal government responsibilities.

“I’m sure conversations and discussion and dialogue that’s going on between the commonwealth government and others. That’s rightly their place,” he said.

Despite calls to repair Australia’s relationship with China, Mr Andrews has sarcastically dismissed Morrison government legislation aimed at allowing the commonwealth to intervene in agreements such as Victoria’s Belt and Road deal as concerning “matters of massive international intrigue like sister city arrangements”.

The legislation is set to go before the Senate as soon as tomorrow, and would enable the federal government to review and cancel agreements that state, territory and local governments and other government-funded organisations such as universities have entered with foreign governments.

Mr Andrews’ comments come after he discussed Australia’s relationship with China with Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday, amid escalating tensions between the two countries.

Asked for his position on the legislation at a press conference on Wednesday morning, Mr Andrews said: “That’s a matter for the federal parliament.”

Challenged over the fact that it could impact Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement, Mr Andrews responded, “well, I wouldn’t enter into agreements unless I thought they were in the interests of our state, so you can logically deduce that”.

“But let’s be clear though, this is about the power to review sister city arrangements, like matters of massive international intrigue like sister city arrangements, who Dandenong is the sister city with, who Monash, where I live, is the sister city with.

“The federal parliament can do as they please. They’re accountable for the decisions they make. If this is the biggest and most important thing for them to be doing at the moment, well, I look forward to them explaining that to everyone.

“This is not my bill. This is their bill. If it passes, then they can explain why that’s the most important piece of public policy at the moment, and as for the status of agreements, if they are empowered to intervene, well then that’ll be a matter for them.

“I’m hardly in a position to comment on that. I’m just giving you the field of reference, the frame if you like, issues of such massive international intrigue and importance as sister city arrangements. That would seem to be the top priority. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but you’d have to speak to them about that.”

Mr Andrews said he would not be reconsidering Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement with China.

“No,” he said.

“This relationship’s far too important to farmers, to manufacturers, to workers, to profits for Victorian companies, and therefore prosperity for our state.

“I’m confident that the commonwealth government knows and understands how important this relationship is. I’m certain of that, and that’s why, as challenging as this is, people have to find a way to work through it.”