(Image: Tom Red/Private Media)

The Morrison government’s latest attempt to recover from months of bad polling, internal division, and public frustration with its handling of the pandemic is to pull out a dead cat the size of China.

Over the last sitting fortnight, the Coalition has escalated its attacks on Labor as being “weak” on Australia’s biggest trading partner, repeatedly alleging the opposition is in the pocket of Beijing. Until this week, the government largely referred euphemistically to “strategic challenges in the region” and “keeping Australians safe” without explicitly mentioning China.

Now, the gloves are off and there are no such qualms. In question time yesterday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison went full “reds under the beds,” accusing Deputy Labor Leader Richard Marles of being a “Manchurian Candidate” (quickly withdrawn) — a reference to a Cold War-era thriller where a returned American soldier becomes an unwitting puppet of the Soviet Union. Throughout the week, Defence Minister Peter Dutton claimed China had picked Anthony Albanese as their candidate.

Spooks deliver smackdown

The government seems determined to continue its China attacks despite warnings from security agencies. Twice this week — at Senate estimates and during a rare appearance on ABC’s 7.30 — ASIO boss Mike Burgess warned that foreign interference was a bipartisan problem that shouldn’t be weaponised for political gain.

“ASIO is apolitical, my staff are apolitical,” Burgess said.

“I’ll leave the politics to the politicians, but I’m very clear with everyone that I need to be that that’s not helpful for us.”

On Radio National this morning, former ASIO director-general Dennis Richardson warned against creating “artificial division” on China, claiming this would further play into Beijing’s hands.

Coming from security agencies — reluctant to get this close to the political fray, and in recent times hawkish on China — this is a major rebuke to the government.

Are there substantive differences on China?

The ammunition for the latest attacks were comments from Burgess last week about a thwarted foreign interference plot, and subsequent reporting linking this to Labor, quickly jumped on by Dutton. A think piece in China’s Global Times, which labelled Albanese a “better leader”, was used by News Corp and government MPs as evidence the opposition leader was endorsed by Beijing.

But on substantial policy issues, there’s absolutely no difference between the two parties, says Australia-China Relations Institute director James Laurenceson.

“Both Penny Wong and Albanese have talked about leading with diplomacy and putting DFAT back at front,” he said.

“That’s not trivial, but in terms of policy decisions — like the Huawei ban, foreign interference and AUKUS, there’s been no difference between the parties.”

In major foreign policy speeches delivered recently, Albanese and Wong have criticised the Morrison government’s at-times impulsive approach to international affairs. In January last year, Albanese attacked Morrison’s closeness with former US president Donald Trump. Wong called out Dutton for “amping up war” in a speech last year.

While Labor have hinted at a more diplomatic approach, perhaps less dictated to by bad polling and domestic political problems, they’ve been in lockstep with the government on policy decisions around China, supporting foreign interference laws, and issues around the Quad alliance (made up of Australia, the US, India and Japan).

The justification for Morrison’s “Manchurian Candidate” slurs seems to be a speech Marles delivered in Beijing while on a 2019 China Matters study tour to the country, where he hinted at embracing closer defence and political cooperation. Coalition MP Ted O’Brien also attended the tour. All up, hardly evidence of treason.

Laurenceson said criticisms of Marles’ from Liberal Senator James Paterson amounted to a “shocking misrepresentation” of the Labor frontbencher’s speech. 

Further attacks have pointed to Labor reducing defence spending during its last term in office. There is no evidence it would do the same again if elected. And while former prime minister Paul Keating’s more doveish approach to Beijing is used by the government to accuse Labor of appeasement, he hasn’t been in Parliament for decades. The current Labor caucus contains its share of China hawks, including Senator Kimberley Kitching.

Labor’s weakness on China is a line of attack the Morrison government will likely persevere with during the final question time of the fortnight and on the campaign trail. But it’s got little basis in fact.