Anthony Albanese has rounded on Scott Morrison at the end of an ugly week that saw the Coalition weaponise national security, with the Labor leader stating if people wanted to identify a “Manchurian candidate” in parliament they should look at the prime minister.
Albanese’s insult followed a significant public intervention on Thursday by Australia’s respected former spy chief Dennis Richardson.
Richardson said the Morrison government was serving China’s interests, not Australia’s, by politicising national security and “seeking to create the perception of a difference [between the major parties] when none in practise exists”.
Richardson’s critique of Morrison and the defence minister, Peter Dutton, prompted the chair of parliament’s intelligence committee, Liberal senator James Paterson, to return fire, arguing the retired bureaucrat had publicly advocated in 2018 that the Chinese telco Huawei should be involved in the Australian 5G rollout.
Paterson described Richardson as a “distinguished” former public servant.
But the Liberal senator told Sky News the government’s decision to exclude Huawei from the 5G rollout was “one of the best decisions our government has made – and I stand by it even if Dennis Richardson disagrees”.
Richardson did not argue for unrestricted Huawei involvement. In 2018, Richardson suggested that Australia should follow the UK’s lead and establish a cyber-security unit to manage risks and safeguard Australia’s national interest, rather than banning the Chinese company outright. The suggestion was Huawei could perhaps be involved in non-sensitive areas.
Richardson told Guardian Australia on Thursday night: “James Paterson is being loose with the truth by a long margin. He ought to check his facts and get them right before he makes public comments about individuals.”
The high octane roiling follows several days of Morrison and Dutton attempting to paint Labor as being soft on China and weak on national security.
The hyper-partisanship culminated in Morrison on Wednesday branding Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, a “Manchurian candidate” – an observation he later withdrew. The phrase “Manchurian candidate” refers to a politician being used as a puppet by an enemy power.
Albanese told parliament on Thursday there were few public figures better qualified than Richardson to deliver the assessment he did. The Labor leader said the former bureaucrat had “the quadrella”.
By that, he meant Richardson had been the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Defence, the director-general of Asio, and Australia’s ambassador to Washington. Albanese said former Liberal prime minister John Howard had appointed Richardson to Asio and sent him to Washington.
Albanese then used Richardson’s criticism of the hyper-partisanship to turn Morrison’s insult back on the prime minister. Gesturing in Morrison’s direction in the chamber, Albanese declared after question time: “If you are looking for a Manchurian candidate, he sits over there.”
Albanese told the chamber he had been engaged with Australia’s most important security ally, the US, for more than 30 years. “I’ve never been to a rally for Donald Trump, and what we’ve seen here this week is the importation of Trumpian rhetoric, where truth doesn’t matter and facts don’t matter,” he said.
As the parliament descended further into uproar, the US reiterated it was “absolutely confident” the alliance with Australia “transcends politics and any one party” – undercutting Morrison’s effort to achieve product differentiation with Labor.
The US assistant secretary of state, Daniel Kritenbrink, who is responsible for the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, was asked on Thursday how confident he was that Australia’s commitment to the US alliance, the Aukus security deal and cooperation on strategic challenges would remain strong regardless of the election outcome.
“Absolutely confident is my answer,” Kritenbrink said.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and senior US officials met with both sides of Australian politics in Melbourne late last week. In a teleconference with journalists on Thursday, Kritenbrink said the US viewed the alliance with Australia as “the anchor for peace, security and stability in the Indo-Pacific”.
“We also had the opportunity to meet with the opposition and we came away reassured that these principles that we hold dear and our vitally important alliance transcends politics and any one party,” Kritenbrink said.
“We came away absolutely confident that whomever the Australian people select as their new leadership, as their next leadership, in the upcoming election, we’re confident that the US-Australia alliance will endure and remain as strong as ever.”
The comments were carefully worded not to express any preference when it comes to the choice facing Australian voters, but they give no indication that Australia’s top ally is concerned about the implications of a change of government.
Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Penny Wong, who joined Albanese for the meeting in Melbourne last week, said Australia’s close relationship with the US was “underpinned by bipartisanship”.
Australia’s close and longstanding relationship with the United States is underpinned by bipartisanship.
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) February 17, 2022
Labor will always act in the national interest. https://t.co/tP9z32dExO
Morrison persisted with his political attack despite the cross-currents. He continued to assert Albanese was “the Chinese government’s pick at this election,” while characterising him as a “weakling” and “diminishing by the day”.
Dutton also declared defence spending “was a mess” when the Coalition came to power. He told parliament voters should ignore “the rhetoric that is being pumped out by the backroom bullies of the Labor party” and instead look at how Labor had “cut spending to the bone” when last in office.
But Albanese sought to undercut the attack by tabling a letter Morrison sent him four months ago. In the letter, Morrison thanked Albanese for supporting Aukus and “for the bipartisan approach the opposition has taken in this vital national endeavour”.
Scott Morrison recently thanked me for the "bipartisan approach the Opposition has taken" regarding AUKUS, in contrast to his more recent desperate scare campaign. Our national interest is above partisan politics. pic.twitter.com/rXkfZ4cg5w
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) February 17, 2022
In an acrimonious Senate estimates hearing on Thursday, senior government frontbencher Simon Birmingham rejected the proposition that the Coalition was furthering Beijing’s interests.
“I have enormous regard for Mr Richardson, but I don’t agree with his starting premise there,” the finance minister said.
Birmingham argued points of difference between the parties had been created by Albanese’s own public statements, such as when the Labor leader included the word “some” when calling on Beijing to scrap its trade actions against Australian export sectors.
The committee hearing was suspended after the Labor senator Tim Ayres accused the government of mounting a “grubby, reckless and shameless” line of attack, telling Birmingham: “You utterly debase yourself with this stuff.”
Birmingham denied the government was making the job of Australia’s intelligence and security agencies more difficult, saying “we don’t seek to politicise it unnecessarily”.
Birmingham said the track records of each party on national security and defence spending were “fair game” in a “robust democracy” and the Coalition “won’t shy away from drawing contrast where there is contrast”.
The secretary of the defence department, Greg Moriarty, was cautious to steer clear of the escalating political dispute, but made a general comment that Australia’s “national resilience depends on national unity to a certain extent”.
“Of course, adversaries will seek to sow division. Over many centuries that has been the case in a variety of circumstances,” Moriarty said.
