Labor split leaves ‘Shorten paralysed’ on South China Sea

Christopher Pyne has launched a scathing attack on opposition defence spokesman Richard Marles.

Christopher Pyne says: ‘Richard Marles demonstrated the rookie error of being overseas and getting carried away.’ Picture: Kym Smith

Christopher Pyne has launched a scathing attack on opposition defence spokesman Richard Marles for his declaration that Labor supports sending Australian ships on freedom of navigation exercises through disputed waters in the South China Sea.

Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman “Penny Wong has specifically rejected Richard Marles’s position so there is a fissure between the foreign shadow and the defence shadow”, Mr Pyne, the Defence Industry Minister, told The Australian.

“Bill Shorten is paralysed because Richard Marles is one of his closest friends and factional leaders, and Penny Wong is a leader of the Left and the leader in the Senate.

“Richard Marles demonstrated the rookie error of being overseas and getting carried away in Honolulu. He said something of significance, but it was entirely at odds with Australia’s national interests, with the way we’ve operated with successive governments for years and with the opposition’s own policy.”

There is an open contradiction between Mr Marles and Senator Wong. When asked by The Australian, Mr Marles’s office declined to address the contradiction but referred to a transcript of a Sky TV interview which did not address the contradiction.

In Honolulu, in an interview with The Australian published on October 8, Mr Marles said: “Our view, Labor’s view, is that our defence force and our navy should be fully authorised to engage in freedom of navigation operations.”

Mr Marles referred to the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration that China had no territorial rights in waters surrounding artificial islands it had built. He confirmed that he supported Australian exercises within 12 nautical miles of the islands.

This had been the position of the former Labor defence spokesman, Stephen Conroy. When Mr Shorten announced his new shadow ministry he said that Labor’s policy on the South China Sea had not changed.

On September 7, Mr Shorten was quoted as saying: “I and my previous defence spokesperson were absolutely resolute about supporting the right of the Australian navy to have freedom of navigation exercises in those areas.”

Mr Shorten meant exercises within 12 nautical miles. However, on the ABC Insiders program on Sunday, Senator Wong said Labor’s position “is the same as the government”.

She made the statement after Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had explicitly ruled out an exercise within the 12 nautical mile zone.

In further endorsing the government’s new position, Senator Wong said: “You don’t seek to escalate a situation, particularly where you are asserting others should de-escalate it.”