Defence Minister Richard Marles has hit back at Opposition Leader Peter Dutton over accusations the Albanese government is “weak” on China, slamming the Coalition for allowing the relationship to fall apart when they were in government.
Defence Minister Richard Marles has met with his Chinese defence counterpart at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said they both “covered a lot of territory” in the meeting.
“It was a good meeting as well; it went longer than anticipated,” Mr Marles told Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell.
“It’s not what adults do,” Marles said, responding to the suggestion he should take a more confrontational approach to his Chinese counterpart.
Richard Marles spoke to Sunday Agenda following his meeting with Chinese counterpart Dong Jun, in which the Defence Minister raised two “unsafe and unprofessional” incidents in the South China Sea.
Australia’s Defence Minister has hit back at opposition leader Peter Dutton following criticism of the Albanese government’s approach to China. Picture: Sky News Australia
Asked about the Coalition’s criticism that the Albanese government was “weak” on China, Mr Marles hit back, slamming the Coalition for letting the China relationship fall apart when they were in office.
“We hear Peter Dutton saying you should be picking the phone; there was no phone when the Liberals were in power,” he said.
“If you take a look at the way in which they engaged, which was essentially to stand up and shout at the world. I mean, the result of that was to not, to be frank, treat China with respect,” he said.
“They may say they don’t care about that, but the consequence of not engaging in a professional and respectful manner meant two things. Firstly, it meant in the areas where we can cooperate, like trade, that all stopped.
“But it also meant that in areas where we do have differences, where there are interactions, where our men and women are out there on the front line wearing our nation’s uniform in our defence force, there was actually no ability to have a conversation with China about that as well.
“They had absolutely no ability to communicate with China at all about anything, even in respect of giving a difficult message.”
Defence Minister Richard Marles met with his Chinese counterpart on Saturday, a month after a Royal Australian Navy helicopter was forced to take evasive action when a Chinese fighter jet fired flares in it’s vicinity. Picture: Supplied.
Minister Marles met with China’s Defence Minister at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday, with the aim of increasing understanding so that military operations can be conducted as safely as possible.
“Obviously, we have seen some… incidents which were both unsafe and unprofessional,” the Defence Minister said.
“But having a dialogue of this kind in place allows us to have a much better understanding of what we’re doing and creates much greater safety for our the men and women who wear a uniform,”
Last month it was revealed that a Royal Australian Navy helicopter was forced to take evasive action after a Chinese fighter jet fired flares into it’s path. This followed revelations from November last year that navy divers were subjected to sonar pulses from a nearby Chinese warship.
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Both incidents occurred in the South China Sea – international waters which China illegally claims sovereignty over.
“I did obviously raise both of those issues,” Mr Marles said.
“One of the things that we need to be doing in our relationship with China… is to be speaking with clarity and to make sure that we are as we say, disagreeing where we must.
“That means making clear where we have differences and where there are issues that need to be raised and need to be highlighted, and certainly those two incidents in the last six or seven months warrant that.”
Beijing claims Australia was trying to spy on naval exercises as it changes its explanation for why it confronted an Australian helicopter last week.
An incident took place in the Yellow Sea when a Chinese fighter jet entered the airspace of an Australian helicopter, after which the fighter jet emitted flares, forcing the helicopter to undertake an emergency evasive manoeuvre.
Both sides blame each other for this incident, which happened last Saturday.
A Chinese military spokesperson said the helicopter had got within close range of Chinese airspace.
However, now China has claimed the Australian helicopter was attempting to spy on a naval exercise.
The Australian government has denied this claim.
When asked whether there were any other incidents that had occurred between Australian Defence Forces and the Chinese military, Mr Marles said there was “a lot of interaction” between the two countries militaries, but the only “unsafe and unprofessional” incidents that have occurred are the two that have already been made public.
“When there have been incidents which have been unsafe and unprofessional, we have spoken about them… because they do represent a significant danger to Australian Defense Force personnel.
“And it’s important that the world understands what is happening here, and that’s why we make it public We also, of course, raised these issues with China immediately, as we did with both of these incidents occurred.”
“There are a whole lot of directions between our defence forces which are professional and safe… But it can’t be most of the time. It needs to be all the time.