Joint strike at Anthony Albanese over China policy

Senior Morrison government ministers have launched a co-ordinated attack on Labor’s China policy, accusing Anthony Albanese of lacking the ‘ticker’ to stand up to Beijing.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese at the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

Senior Morrison government ministers have launched a co-ordinated attack on Labor’s China policy, accusing Anthony Albanese of lacking the “ticker’’ to stand up to Beijing and abandoning exporters hit by crippling sanctions.

As Australia joined a European Union World Trade Organisation action against Chinese economic ­coercion, Josh Frydenberg, Dan Tehan, Barnaby Joyce and David Littleproud on Friday lashed the ­Opposition Leader over what they claimed was a softening in Labor’s position on China-­Australia relations.

As they escalated the China ­relationship into a major election flashpoint, one senior Coalition figure said “no man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it” after Mr Albanese this week pledged to ­balance human rights concerns with stronger economic ties.

Responding to new Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian’s olive branch, Mr Albanese said Australia should change its posture and urged Beijing to withdraw “some of the actions that have been taken to stop Australian products going to China”.

The co-ordinated attack comes as the Coalition seeks to make national security a key focus of the election campaign after striking a nuclear sub­marine deal with the US and Britain ­partly in response to increasing regional strategic tensions over China.

The attack on Mr Albanese is also aimed at fanning tensions within Labor over China policy. Labor elder and former prime minister Paul Keating has been critical of both parties over their China policies, arguing at the ­National Press Club last year that, as a major power, it should be treated with “respect’’.

Ahead of announcing that Australia would join the US in backing the EU’s WTO case against China, Mr Tehan said: “We know where we stand in ­opposing all economic coercion and will not selectively sacrifice regional and rural industries. Who gets sacrificed? The wine ­industry, grain growers, lobster fishers, the meat industry? These are serious questions (Mr ­Albanese) needs to answer. Having an each-way bet on these types of issues is not in Australia’s national interest.

“We will not sacrifice any Australian industries that face economic coercion and yet the Leader of the Opposition said he would. It seriously beggars belief. There’s a good Franklin D. Roosevelt quote: ‘No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it’.”

Mr Littleproud said Mr Albanese “hasn’t got the ticker to lead this country if he doesn’t have the courage to stand up to China for every ­Australian”. “If you want to lead you’ve got to lead for everyone,” the Agriculture Minister said. “So is it the barley growers that don’t have his support or is it the beef industry he thinks China was right to take action against?”

As the government attempts to amplify differences between the Coalition and Labor on China, both sides are treading carefully to avoid ostracising Chinese Australians in key NSW and Victorian battleground seats.

Acting opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Kristina ­Keneally said criticism of Labor’s approach to China-Australia ­relations was ridiculous and showed “the desperation of the Morrison government”.

“Labor has just repeated what Dan Tehan said had to happen earlier this week,” Senator Ken­eally said. “Why does Scott Morrison have a problem with Labor calling for Chinese trade sanctions against Australia to be withdrawn, or saying it’s in the interest of both nations to work through current trade disputes?

“Mr Morrison should focus on diversifying our exports, protecting Australian jobs and working through these trade disputes rather than manufacturing differences with the opposition ahead of the election.”

China has banned or restricted coal, barley, seafood, wine, beef and timber exports in protest against Australia pushing back on foreign interference and national security threats.

The EU’s request for WTO consultations, lodged on January 27, criticises China’s discriminatory trade practices against Lithuanian goods and European products with Lithuanian content. Australia’s support for the EU complaint, initiated after ­Beijing targeted Lithuania with economic coercion, is likely to trigger a fresh backlash against Canberra. Lithuania – one of the smallest countries in the EU – triggered the ire of China by allowing Taiwan to open a diplomatic outpost in Vilnius.

The Treasurer said the China-Australia economic relationship was important to both countries but “we will not put our economic interest ahead of our national interest”. “All economic sanctions by China on Australia should be dropped immediately and unconditionally. No ifs, no buts,” Mr Frydenberg said.

He said that “to be prime ­minister you have to be prepared to stand up for Australia’s national ­interest”.

Mr Joyce said that, when Mr Albanese talked about removing Chinese sanctions on some Australian exporters, “which ones is he intending to leave there?”

“When he washes the dishes, does he just wash some of them?” the Deputy Prime Minister said. “Our wine producers want all ­restrictions removed, not just some of them. Our barley producers want all restrictions removed, not just some of them. Our coal producers want all restrictions removed, not just some of them.”

Mr Xiao, who arrived on Wednesday to replace firebrand Cheng Jingye as China’s 15th ambassador in Canberra, said his tenure in Australia was a “noble mission” and committed to “jointly push the China-Australia relations back to the right track”.

“I look forward to working with the Australian government and friends in all sectors to ­increase engagement and communication, enhance mutual understanding and trust, eliminate misunderstanding and suspicion, promote mutually beneficial exchanges and co-­operation in all areas between the two sides,” Mr Xiao said.

In response to the EU’s WTO action, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the “so-called coercion on Lithuania is groundless and distorts facts”.

“The problem between China and Lithuania is a political not an economic one,” Mr Zhao said. “They were created by Lithuania that acted in bad faith and hurt China’s interests, rather than China’s pressure on Lithuania.

“We urge the Lithuanian side to immediately mend its ways, avoid willingly act as a pawn for Taiwan independence separatist forces and anti-China forces, and return to the right track of adhering to the one-China principle.”

Mr Tehan said Australia opposed the use of economic coercion and discriminatory and restrictive trade practices that undermined the rules-based international trading system and caused economic harm.