Joe Hildebrand: Anthony Albanese on dealing with China during election

Anthony Albanese has a fight he should not pick and a battle he cannot win, writes Joe Hildebrand.

The famous Serenity Prayer reads as follows: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

And you can bet that Anthony Albanese would be muttering a version of it under his breath today, albeit perhaps one with a few more expletives.

Because after several strong weeks for the government, in which it has set the agenda and wrongfooted an opposition scrambling to catch up, the PM has run up against something he cannot change: China.

Yes, as the soon-to-be old Australian saying goes, another day, another Chinese spy ship.

This time it’s a “research vessel” hovering around in the Great Australian Bight which has the capacity to map the ocean floor, which would be a great asset for Chinese submarines — or ours if we ever get any.

And of course it follows a Chinese warship that was caught doing live fire exercises by a Virgin Australia pilot off the east coast.

A Chinese research ship has sailed into Australian waters.

Frankly you expect that sort of thing on a Jetstar flight but not a respectable middle-market airline.

Fortunately Albo at least had the sanguinity to accept the things he could not change, saying with almost monk-like equanimity that he would “prefer that it wasn’t there”.

And that’s probably as hard as you will see the PM go during this election campaign, because despite all the sabre-rattling the Coalition is demanding of him when it comes to China, Labor — as the Serentiy Prayer suggests — is savvy enough to know how to pick its battles.

Three of the 19 reasons the Coalition lost power in 2022 were the seats of Bennelong in Sydney, Chisholm in Melbourne and Tangney in Perth.

All very middle-class suburban seats that are hardly Labor heartland — Bennelong was held by John Howard for 33 years — but all with one thing in common: A huge Chinese-Australian population.

And one of the reasons they all swung to Labor was Scott Morrison being seen as too hostile to China.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the campaign trail. Picture: Jason Edwards/NewsWire

Few Chinese Australians would have any affection for or loyalty to the Chinese Government — many were fleeing it — but they are also proud of their heritage and homeland and often have family there. They do not want relations with it jeopardised.

And those same seats and same voters will be critical in deciding who forms government on May 3. This is the real dragon that neither party wants to wake.

Originally published as Joe Hildebrand: Anthony Albanese on dealing with China during election