Staying with Kevin Rudd’s Radio National interview for a moment, and the former Labor PM says the Albanese government is striking the right balance when it comes to handling China-Australia relations.
As mentioned yesterday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says it’s time to call out bullying behavior from Beijing.
Kevin Rudd has lashed Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Credit:Bloomberg
“Mr Dutton is the architect of what I would describe as Australia’s megaphone diplomacy towards Beijing,” Rudd said.
“Has it solved any problems in terms of Australia’s long-term relationship with China? Not really. It was simply aimed, primarily, as a piece of domestic political posturing on the part of Mr Dutton and the Liberal Party.
“For God’s sake, this is the party which leased the Port of Darwin to China on a 99-year lease. This is the government which failed to put down a single rivet on a single boat on a submarine order which was agreed to under my government.
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“Mr Dutton has multiple cases to answer rather than just wallowing around in the continued rhetoric of hairy-chestedness. It doesn’t advance Australia’s core national security interests one bit.”
Here’s what Dutton told Sydney-based radio station 2GB: “If you don’t call out somebody like President Putin or President Xi, if we don’t shine a light on the bad behaviour, we will see in Taiwan what we’re seeing in Ukraine at the moment.”