Robb: China relations ‘turned to custard’

Andrew Robb, the minister who clinched Australia’s historic free trade agreement with China, says the relationship is in trouble.

Former trade minister Andrew Robb. Picture: Aaron Francis

The minister who clinched Australia’s historic free-trade agreement with China, Andrew Robb, says the relationship “has turned to custard’’, with national security concerns about Beijing’s rise eclipsing the economic and political benefits.

Mr Robb, the Liberal Party cabinet minister who negotiated the 2015 FTA with China, has warned Australia risks succumbing to the American “obsession’’ with China, in particular the view that Beijing’s rise needs to be contained rather than embraced.

Mr Robb called for a more balanced discussion in Australia on China, saying security concerns surrounding Beijing’s rise needed to be set against the broader economic relationship.

“In my view, it’s been over-influenced by the security interests, which has largely been driven by the US,’’ Mr Robb told The Australian. “What was a highly favourable relationship just three years ago has gone to custard at the political level.’’

Mr Robb attracted criticism after leaving politics when he took a lucrative contract with Landbridge, a Chinese infrastructure company.

But he said he refused to do any Australian-based work for the company in order to avoid any potential conflicts of interest stemming from his former role as trade minister. Instead, he worked on other projects, including a proposal for a medical precinct in China.

Mr Robb said it was his work on the project that underscored just how much the relationship between Beijing and Australia had soured. He said that after 15 months inspecting similar facilities around the world for the company, he put together a proposal that required the imprimatur of the Chinese government.

“The chairman went and put some feelers out in Beijing, came back and said that our relationship is now so toxic it would be put in the bin,” Mr Robb said.

“It wasn’t even an Australian project, but because it was an Australian doing it, it was out.’’

He said the tenor of the Australian debate, which has centred on Beijing’s alleged political interference in Australian political and democratic life, had offended the Chinese government and Chinese Australians.

The creation of the Foreign ­Influence and Transparency Scheme, which requires anyone working on behalf of a foreign principal, such as a company, think tank or community group, to register, was a good example. “There was never any explanation about how having your name on this thing was going to make us any safer,’’ Mr Robb said.