Payne says Marles ‘failed to report all meetings’ with senior Chinese officials

Foreign Minister Marise Payne says deputy Labor leader Richard Marles disclosed “only a small number” of his meetings with senior Chinese officials to her office.

Shadow Defence Minister Richard Marles meets with Guo Yezhou, deputy head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Liaison Department during a "China Matters"-organised visit to Beijing in September, 2019.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne says deputy Labor leader Richard Marles disclosed “only a small number” of his meetings with senior Chinese officials to her office, and declared his behaviour was “not entirely consistent” with Labor’s current rhetoric on China.

In the 2022 election’s foreign affairs debate on Friday, Labor’s Penny Wong hit back at suggestions Mr Marles was too close to Beijing, saying “we are all patriots”.

The Australian revealed on Friday that Mr Marles held 10 meetings with the Chinese embassy or its senior officials in the past five years, amid rising tensions in the Sino-Australia relationship.

Campaigning in Launceston, Scott Morrison said Mr Marles had attended a “very strangely high” number of meetings with Chinese officials, adding: “Something doesn’t sound right to me.”

Mr Marles said he had been “completely transparent” in all his dealings with the Chinese embassy. “Indeed, the government has known about them and at times has been supporting them,” Mr Marles said.

“There’s no secret to what I’ve been doing and I could not have been more transparent.”

Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne. Picture: NCA Newswire/Andrew Taylor

But Senator Payne said her office had not been informed of all of Mr Marles’ meetings with the Chinese embassy. “In relation to specific approaches from Mr Marles, my understanding is a small number of those meetings were advised to my office,” she said.

“It is not my role to clear them or otherwise. I would describe them as being noted. But I would say that it is important to be consistent, and that is certainly the approach that this government has taken in all of our engagements.”

Senator Wong said she had visited China in her role, and met with the former Chinese ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye and his replacement Xiao Qian.

She said she had flagged her meetings with the Morrison government to ensure bipartisan messages were sent to Beijing on its economic coercion of Australia and human rights abuses.

Senator Wong suggested the Coalition was playing politics with Mr Marles’ engagements with Chinese officials to drum up votes.

“I mean, look, we all understand why Mr Morrison is saying what he’s saying. We all understand that, you know, in the lead-up to an election, things will get increasingly desperate, and accusations will be made,” she said.

“But I just want to make this point because there’s been too much of this in this campaign: we are all patriots. Mr Morrison and the Liberal Party do not have a monopoly on patriotism.”

Senator Wong said China was now more “aggressive” and Australia’s immediate region was being reshaped.

“The fact is the risks Australians face will be compounded by three more years of Scott Morrison,” she said. “More of the same excuses, the same buck-passing, the same political games ahead of the national interest, while our problems just get bigger.”

Senator Payne said under the Coalition, Australia would continue to seek a “constructive relationship” with China, but there would be no de-escalation of tensions with Beijing until “our sovereignty and our interests are respected”.

Earlier, Mr Xiao said he hoped Canberra and Beijing could “review our past and look into the ­future”, regardless of who won the May 21 election.

Appearing on Sky News, the ambassador declined to say whether Labor or the Coalition would have a better chance at forging a closer relationship.

“I am expecting after the election we will have a new government, whichever political party will be in power, (and) we are ­looking forward to a future of possibilities of China and Australia,” Mr Xiao said.