Peta Credlin: Scott Morrison was right to say Labor’s deputy is on China’s side

Anthony Albanese dismissed the prime minister’s charge as an “outrageous slur”, but history shows his party have indeed been on China’s side, writes Peta Credlin.

When the Prime Minister accused Labor, during Wednesday’s leaders’ debate, of taking “China’s side”, the Opposition Leader shot back that it was an “outrageous slur”.

But it wasn’t, actually, because being on China’s side is the consistent position of his own deputy.

When it comes to resisting China’s push into the South Pacific, Labor’s deputy leader Richard Marles said that would be a “historic mistake”.

In a book published in August last year, called Tides That Bind, Marles (who wants to be defence minister after the election and will be our deputy PM if Labor win) said that: “Australia has no right to expect a set of exclusive relationships with the Pacific nations. They are perfectly free to engage on whatever terms they choose with China or … any other country.”

Deputy Labor Leader Richard Marles has a consistently pro-China position. Picture: Tim Hunter.

So according to Marles, if the Solomons want to sell China a naval base, that’s quite OK even though his leader has just described the security agreement between the Solomons and China as “a massive failure of our foreign policy”.

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that, for Labor, the real strategic opponent is not the Chinese government but the Australian one; and that Labor is only against China when China can be used as a stick to beat the Morrison government.

Labor has been consistently soft on China. There’s former NSW premier Bob Carr’s over-the-top pro-China rhetoric and former senator Sam Dastyari’s pro-China cash-for-comment. When the government closed our borders to China at the start of the pandemic, and China objected, Labor criticised the government for “blindsiding” China.

Former NSW premier Bob Carr is another senior Labor figure who has been soft on China. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

When the government called for a full independent investigation of the Wuhan virus, and China complained, Labor said the government was playing politics with “splashy headlines”. When China started boycotting our goods, Labor said it was the government’s fault for not having better relations with China.

For Labor, it’s always about domestic politics – and the problem with always thinking politically is that it stops you thinking strategically. You can’t trust Labor to turn back boats when its leader didn’t want to just a few years ago.

And you can’t trust Labor to stand up to China when its deputy didn’t want to just last year.

Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm.

Originally published as Peta Credlin: Scott Morrison was right to say Labor’s deputy is on China’s side