ALP leak hits Keneally and Carr over China influence questions

An internal leak against Kristina Keneally and Bob Carr — and questions about China’s influence — has created Labor division.

Labor Senator Kristina Keneally during Senate Estimates at Parliament House. Picture: AAP

A damaging internal leak against Kristina Keneally has sparked division inside the opposition as Labor sources say former NSW premier Bob Carr suggested she ask questions about a journalist who advises the government on China’s influence in Australia.

Speculation about collusion between Mr Carr and Senator Keneally, which they both deny, has incensed other right-wing MPs who have already expressed private concern about Mr Carr’s role in pushing controversial foreign policy motions at Labor ­conferences.

Two Labor sources yesterday told The Australian that Senator Keneally had requested the questions be added to those asked by Kimberley Kitching of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on May 22.

The Labor sources claimed Senator Keneally, a former NSW premier, told Senator Kitching that Mr Carr, a former foreign minister, would owe her if she asked the questions.

The questions were about former China correspondent and now government speechwriter John Garnaut, who previously worked directly for Malcolm Turnbull and contributed to a government report about Chinese government influence in Australia.

In its response to Labor’s questions last week, the Prime Minister’s Department said Mr Garnaut had an initial $39,328 contract for five months from last October and a second $79,000 contract from March this year for specialist speechwriting on international speeches.

Mr Carr’s think tank, the Australia-China Relations Institute, has come under fire from some in the national security community for receiving funds from Beijing-linked individuals and companies. Labor MPs yesterday defended Senator Keneally, saying it was a legitimate line of questioning considering it was about the expenditure by the Prime Minister’s Department on a former senior adviser.

Senator Keneally said she wrote the questions herself.

Her spokeswoman said: “It is completely legitimate, and a quite usual process, to ask questions on notice or in estimates about staffing and contractual arrangements in order to determine who is providing advice to government.

“Senator Keneally’s questions are written by her, and only her.”

On Tuesday, Senator Kitching tweeted support for Senator Ken­eally but clarified her relationship with Mr Carr, saying: “I’ve never met him or had any form of ­communication with him and won’t be.”

Mr Carr said: “Kristina is a highly educated woman who has served as premier of NSW. She’d reject the idea of anyone drafting her questions.”

He added: “Certainly the Australian people are entitled to know if former journalist John Garnaut, who runs an extreme anti-China campaign, is being paid as a consultant by the Prime Minister’s Department.”

Lowy Institute senior fellow Richard McGregor tweeted: “Good to see this nasty effort to besmirch @jgarnaut outed.”

The internal row exposes a divide between Labor’s fringes over how to approach the ­foreign-influence debate in ­Australia.

Mr Carr has also been lobbying Labor state and national conferences to pass motions to force an incoming Labor government to recognise Palestine.