Proof Richard Marles has not fully dispensed with misguided and ridiculous views on China

Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, needs to repudiate the foolish remarks he has made in the past about China in the South Pacific.

They were foolish when he made them and some of them were heavily criticised at the time. He hadn’t repeated them so it’s fair enough to let the dead past bury its dead to some extent.

The Morrison government itself was speaking publicly about China in very different tones a couple of years ago.

But for Marles to republish his comments in a booklet demonstrates that Marles has not fully dispensed with what were always misguided and at times ridiculous views.

The speech he made on China in Beijing in 2019 was the worst major speech on China any senior Labor representative has made for several years.

In it Marles effectively blamed the Australian government for what were already an emerging series of serious problems with Beijing. Things have become much clearer since then, but even by then Beijing’s pattern of aggression and intimidation, directed at many more nations than just Australia, was clear.

Marles talked absolute tripe about how a Labor government would re-establish “trust” with Beijing.

Federal Shadow Minister for Defence Richard Marles.

If he trusts Beijing, he would be the only senior politician in the world to do so.

Remember that Xi Jinping solemnly promised Barack Obama that China would never militarise the islands it was occupying, or in some cases building, in the South China Sea, but then it went ahead and did just that.

Remember that Beijing made solemn treaty promises about how it would treat Hong Kong only to breach all those promises when the time suited it.

There are a thousand other examples.

If you trust Beijing you’re a fool.

Marles’s speech was one of the very few occasions when Labor gave some sustenance to the government claim, which is mostly false, that it sided with Beijing against Australia so long as the coalition Government was in power.

Marles presumably became ashamed of the speech as he no longer has it on his web site. But you can’t simply erase the past. Politicians absolutely hate admitting they made mistakes but Marles would be much better served to admit honestly that what he said was wrong, and he has reconsidered and changed his views.

This is all a bit of a mystery because generally Marles is a national security hawk. I have the greatest respect for Marles. More than any other senior Labor figure, he makes an effort to master defence capability, equipment, and policy. He is the senior figure in the leadership from the party’s Right. However, it is an inescapable fact that he has made more foolish statements about China than any other senior Labor figure.

Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong, both from the left, have been sober and sensible about China, especially over the last couple of years.

The passage of time forgives a lot. There was a time when the government was, officially at least, welcoming of Beijing’s participation, and even its aid, in the South Pacific.

But for Marles to have made light of Chinese ambitions to secure a military base in the South Pacific is incredibly dumb. Surely Marles knows that acquiring such a base has been a long-term strategic aim of Beijing’s. To make a dumb statement is forgivable – politicians are only human. To repeat the statement is to compound the error.

Similarly for Marles to mock Australia as embarking on a bidding war with China is the South Pacific is also inexplicably weird.

Of course South Pacific island nations are free to engage however they like with any other nation. But because our partners are free to do bad things doesn’t make it wrong for Australian policy to urge them not to.

The United States is perfectly free to withdraw entirely from our region if it wishes. Australian policy is to convince them not to do so.

Because Marles has never disowned some of the really silly things he has said about China he has compromised Labor’s standing on national security and given the government rhetorical hostages which it is perfectly entitled to exploit.

Marles should fess up now and repudiate his silliness. Otherwise he leaves a question mark over the sincerity of Labor’s generally sensible statements on national security.