Think before you speak: Minister’s advice to colleagues after Hastie remarks

Simon Birmingham becomes the second senior minister to call-out Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie’s comments on China.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has become the second senior minister to call-out Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie’s comments on China while offering some advice to his colleagues: think before you speak.

Mr Birmingham said he would encourage colleagues to question the necessity and helpfulness of making comments before publicly raising issues that could affect Australia’s national interests.

“Is the making of those comments in a public way necessary? Is it helpful to Australia’s national interests?” he told the ABC on Sunday.

Mr Birmingham’s comments come a week after Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie came under fire for comparing China’s rise to that of Nazi Germany, which drew a mixed reaction from his Coalition colleagues and prompted condemnation from Beijing.

Mr Hastie, who is the chair of parliament’s security and intelligence committee, also said Australia will face its biggest democratic, economic and security test as China and the US compete for global dominance.

Deputy Opposition leader Richard Marles this morning lashed Mr Hastie’s comments as “incendiary”, while calling for bipartisan consensus when it came to balancing national security concerns and Australia’s economic ties with China.

“There isn’t a cold war going on here, China is not the Soviet Union,” Mr Marles said.

“We have got to have a settled position going forward over the next few decades and that does require bipartisanship.”

When pressed whether Australia’s relationship with the United States was still significant, Mr Marles said it was “as important as ever.”

“Our alliance with the United States is as significant a relationship today as it has ever been,” he said. “I absolutely believe that and what underpins our relationship with the US is a sense of shared values.”

Mr Birmingham’s comments have further exposed a split within the Coalition when it comes to the China relationship, with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann last week describing the Nazi comparison as “a bit clumsy and inappropriate”.

Attorney-General Christian Porter also said he didn’t agree with Mr Hastie’s views.

“The relationship with China is far more complex and mature than is indicated in Andrew’s article,” he told 6PR radio.

“Our undertakings with China are that we engage directly with them in a thoughtful manner,” Mr Birmingham said this morning. “When we have points of difference in relation to human rights issues or in relation to national security issues we have taken them up with China and will continue to do so.”

Speaking hours after his colleague Mr Marles called for a bipartisan consensus on China, Labor leader Anthony Albanese today lashed the Coalition over Mr Hastie’s comments, saying the disparate responses to the opinion piece showed they were “clearly divided.”

“He’s been slapped down by people like Mathias Cormann in the government, but he’s also been supported by Peter Dutton,” Mr Albanese said. “Today Simon Birmingham was all over the shop and couldn’t really respond to the issue. Nor did Scott Morrison take the opportunity to distance himself from Andrew Hastie’s inopportune comments.”

Mr Albanese said the “real issue” at play was that the government had taken its eye off what was truly concerning Australians such as energy costs, wage stagnation and economic growth.

When asked whether he thought the government was sinophobic, Mr Albanese refused to be drawn.