Subjects: G20; President Xi; Australian Open 2023; Russian missile strike.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Joining us live now is the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Peter, good to see you. Thanks for your time. So, what’s your first reaction to Anthony Albanese’s meeting with President Xi?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, good morning, Pete. Well, we certainly welcome the meeting. The approach that I’ve taken since I became Leader of the Liberal Party is to provide bipartisan support to the government, particularly when it comes to international relations. The engagement in our region, but with world leaders otherwise, is incredibly important and it’s also important that when the Prime Minister’s on the world stage that we provide support and that the world sees that there is a unified position in relation to what are very important issues.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Do you believe President Xi is genuine?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, you can only take people at face value. Obviously, a few days ago President Xi was speaking with his troops and dressed up in the Army fatigues, talking about war etcetera so, I want to provide every support, as I say, to the Prime Minister in the discussions.
China still has Australian citizens held against their will; the situation in relation to the trade tariffs, I hope that they can now come off, as the Prime Minister says that they can as a result of this meeting and there are many other steps in the relationship. So, let’s hope that they can proceed, but from our perspective, we want a normalised relationship, but China’s made that very hard over recent years.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Sure. Yeah. I mean, you just mentioned this, but is it your expectation now that this will lead to sanctions being wound back or scrapped?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, that’s the Prime Minister’s expectation as I’ve seen his public commentary. The purpose of the meeting, obviously, is to advance these issues that are important to our country and in our nation’s best interests. We want to make sure that Australian citizens are treated according to the rule of law and that their human rights are respected. At the moment that’s not happening and we’ve raised those. I raised the issues with the Chinese Ambassador only a week or two ago and no doubt the Prime Minister’s raised those issues with the Chinese President as well.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
The Prime Minister is holding the line and keeping your former government’s positions in place. Are you encouraged by that?
PETER DUTTON:
I hope the Prime Minister was able to raise the issue of AUKUS because I know China has said that this is creating an arms race in our region and they don’t support the AUKUS construct between the United States and the United Kingdom and Australia. I think that’s regrettable and it’s obviously not a true reflection of what the agreement is about. It’s an agreement that was struck that upset China at the time. Of course, it wasn’t a deal that was done in Labor’s time in government, so they didn’t create an aggravation in that regard. Similarly, the decision that we had to make in relation to 5G to exclude high risk vendors like Huawei and ZTE, that upset China very much. But as we’ve seen with Optus and with Medibank and many other instances in recent months – as we’ll see into the future – you need to narrow the risk on the internet and on those services, not increase it, and having services that were going to collect data of Australian citizens from our telecommunications system was unacceptable to us and, as I say, that upset China at the time. Again, that’s not a decision that Labor has had to make or to suffer the consequences of, because they never made that decision when they were in government, and they didn’t make the military acquisitions that we did when we were in government. So, they’re in a different situation, in a different time, and we’re happy if the Prime Minister believes that the relationship is normalised and that the trade sanctions will be lifted.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Yeah, I mean, that’s a fair point re AUKUS, I’m not sure whether that was raised. I’ll have to check that. But with that said, can business or our exporters have any confidence that sanctions won’t just be reinstated down the track as soon as we push back against them again?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Pete, I think a lot of businesses, not just Australian businesses, but businesses frankly from around the world are de-risking out of China. Many are moving their manufacturing to the Philippines, to Vietnam and elsewhere. They’ve made judgements about China’s actions, not just their words but their actions as well. Don’t forget, of course, at the moment, China is increasing the fleet size within their navy every 18 months by about the same size as our entire Australian Navy. So, all of that war effort continues on, so we want to be realistic about the time that we live in and I think businesses otherwise are realistic about making sure that they haven’t got too much concentration in that market and that they’re diversifying and de-risking and that’s the judgement that they’ve appropriately made.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Would any kind of reset change our approach on Taiwan, if China were to make a move on the island?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Pete, our position has been longstanding and this government’s adopted that position. Obviously, there was an important meeting between President Xi and President Biden as well and the discussion there was really concentrated on Taiwan and I suspect, as is always the case with these meetings, further detail will be released over the coming weeks. So, there would have been much more in-depth conversation than we’re aware of at the moment. But we respect the current arrangement. Look, any position we’ve taken when we were in government, when we are in opposition, is all about maintaining peace and stability in our region. We want the 25 million people in Taiwan to live peacefully and continue the life that they’re leading now. Similarly, we want growth and prosperity and success for China as well. Nobody wants conflict and that’s really a decision for China.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Peter, you and I, we’ve spoken at length about Xi Jinping. He’s as cunning as a fox. What do you think is behind this change of heart, do you think?
PETER DUTTON:
Look, I think it’s been written in recent days that China can turn on a dime. I accept that. But that can work both ways and obviously, there’s a charm offensive that’s underway at the moment and I hope that they’re sincere about it. But there are different periods in history where you can point to where leaders have been very sincere in these meetings and then their actions have been quite different.
The fact is that there are still significant human rights abuses in China. You know, the international tennis player still has outstanding allegations of having been sexually assaulted and she’s prevented from leaving the country. We haven’t seen anything of that publicly and I think you’d need to look not just at the words, but at the actions as well.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Ok, a couple of quick ones before you go, Peter. I mean, speaking of tennis players, Novak Djokovic, he’s going to be playing at the Australian Open next January. What’s your reaction to that? Basically overturning the visa ban that was put in place by your government.
PETER DUTTON:
Well Pete, I think the ban in the first place was appropriate. It was based on all of the information available and obviously a very different period in relation to COVID as well. We’ve just had a ship dock here in Sydney that had 800 people that had tested positive for COVID on board. Now, the reaction two years ago – if that had have been the case – would have been very different to the way in which the New South Wales and the Australian government have responded today. So, I think it’s appropriate that Novak’s invited here, we’re going to have a great Australian Open. It’s always a great sporting event for Melbourne, for our country, and it’s a world spectacle and I think you want the best players there. I suspect in hindsight, I hope that Mr Djokovic has some regret about some elements of his conduct and the rest. But the fact is that we’re a couple of years down the track now and it’ll be good to see him playing great tennis here in Australia.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Just a final one on this breaking news this morning that two Russian missiles have hit Poland, Peter. Whether it’s an accident or not, it seems to have happened. How troubled are you by that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, very much so, Pete. I think it escalates, not de-escalates. There are neighbouring countries who have been very worried – Poland, in particular – because of the threat not just of the conventional war, but the prospect of a nuclear war under President Putin. That’s deeply concerning, obviously, for Ukraine, but for their near neighbours as well and to see people killed in Poland now is a tragedy for them, for their families, for their country, but for the region as well. It just highlights the dangerous actions of President Putin, the reckless actions in his invasion into Ukraine, and hundreds of thousands by the end of this conflict will have lost their lives because of decisions he’s made. I hope that this causes Russia to stop and reflect on the actions and we don’t want to see an escalation of this conflict.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Peter Dutton, the Opposition Leader, appreciate your time as always. Thank you so much. We’ll talk to you soon.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks, Pete.
[ends]