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Peter Dutton on Richard Marles:
Look, I think most Australians were pretty shocked when Adam Bandt spoke about there being no problem in our region, stripping money from the defence force, but it seems when you look now at what Richard Marles has written just in the last year or so, there’s not much difference, it seems, between the Greens and the Labor Party when it comes to the decisions about how to defend our country and what position you should be taking in relation to what is happening in the Indo-Pacific.
I find it quite startling that Richard Marles, as the deputy leader of the Labor Party, could have made these statements. They weren’t made in 1999 or 2010, these were statements a matter of months ago.
And it’s no wonder that when Richard Marles and Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong and others were sitting around the cabinet with Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, they stripped money out of defence and they lost control of our borders. And they don’t have the strength, frankly, to deal with the issues that our country will face into the future. We do know there’s a period of uncertainty.
And we do know our country needs to stand up for our values, we need to invest in the defences of our country and Richard Marles has essentially abandoned that principle. He wants to be the defence minister because Brendan O’Connor is not up to that. We know that already. No-one else within the caucus wants to be the Home Affairs Minister. Who would their national security team be?
As I say, they’ve always got something else to do, another priority to meet, apart from the defence of our country. And Prime Minister and I are rock solid with the national security committee and the decisions we’re making to keep our country safe in an uncertain period, and that’s a big part of what this election is about.
On the question about what is there issue with Richard Marles’ comments, Scott Morrison says:
When it comes to what Richard Marles – Marles wrote last year in August that Australia should not be resisting Pacific island nations entering into these type of agreements with the Chinese government*. I mean, it doesn’t get more blunt than that. And I’m going to ask Peter to make a few comments. This election is not just a choice about who is going to be Prime Minister. It’s a choice about who will be the defence minister. Who will be the Home Affairs Minister. Who is going to be the Treasurer?
Now, I have a strong and experienced team. Richard Marles is the deputy leader of the Labor Party. He would be Deputy Prime Minister in an Albanese government. I don’t know where he is today. They have gone to others today for comment on these things, with their travelling media pack, in terms of this campaign, but Richard Marles seeks to be, as we understand it, the defence minister in an Albanese government. Now, I think it’s fair for people to understand the difference in the views between the two alternatives. So I’m going to ask Peter to make some remarks on this as well.
*Let’s look at what Marles actually said.
In relation to development assistance (not bases!):
Let me be crystal clear: that was and has been a good thing. The Pacific needs help and Australia needs to welcome any country willing to provide it. Certainly the Pacific Island countries themselves do,”
On attempting to block China:
Basing our actions in the Pacific on an attempt to strategically deny China would be a historic mistake … Not only would this be detrimental to our regional relationships, it would be a failed course of action. Australia has no right to expect a set of exclusive relationships with the Pacific nations. They are perfectly free to engage on whatever terms they choose with China or, for that matter, any other country. Disputing this would be resented, as the recent past has shown.”
The first thing to note is this is not that different from the Morrison government’s recognition that Solomon Islands has the right to sign a security deal with China. Acknowledging the Solomon Islands right to do so is not the same as welcoming a deal with China.
Q: Have you been in touch with the US delegation, Kurt Campbell, ahead of their meeting with prime minister Sogavare, and this morning, on another note, you described Richard Marles’s comments on China as chilling. What are you specifically accusing Labor of in relation to China and the Solomon Islands, and are you seriously saying that Labor has been disloyal to Australia?
Scott Morrison:
As a government, we’re in regular contact with the United States on these issues and been over a very long time. Over the last three and a half years as prime minister, on more than 100 occasions, I had direct discussions with Pacific leaders. I was the first prime minister in a very long time to go to Fiji, for example, and recognise prime minister Bainimarama, have a direct bilateral meeting with him, a purpose visit just to go to Fiji, to stand with prime minister Bainimarama.
That was very important for Australia. Fiji is an important leader in the Pacific. Same reason why I enjoy those strong relationships with the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea.
This is a constant process. It’s not just this day or that day. It’s all the time that we’re engaging with our Pacific family. And we do for the obvious reasons of what has been highlighted in the Solomon Islands. There are frailties and vulnerabilities. As I said many times today, and Peter made similar remarks, the Chinese government does not play by the same rules.
We have seen what they have done in other parts of the world. These pressures are constant and have been there for years. That’s why I made the visits to the region as I have. Not just to the Solomon Islands, to Vanuatu, Fiji, I’ve been very active in the region and in the participation in the Pacific Island forum.
We’re looking forward for the opportunity to come through to talk about what has recently occurred in the Solomon Islands. Because that’s the way we have approached and will continue to approach our relationship in the Pacific. And we’re not some colonial power running around throwing our weight around, telling people what to do.
That was the approach of previous administrations. That was not well received in the Pacific. We have taken a different approach, through our Pacific step-up, that treats all of them with great respect, and understanding their needs and issues and ensuring our increased investment in development assistance, investing in their critical infrastructure, climate adaptation, all of these things we have done over a long period of time.
We do that with our partners, we do it with Japan as well. We have a close dialogue with Japan. They’re also an important development partner for Pacific nations. As is the United States. But we’re getting feedback from the meetings they were having and we’ll continue to work together on ensuring a secure and stable Pacific, south-west Pacific, with other important partners like New Zealand, and I am in regular contact with prime minister Ardern on those issues.
Scott Morrison press conference
The Liberal leader opens up with a very big welcome and thank you to Peter Dutton, as he launches into a defence spend spiel.
He’s in Ipswich, just outside of Brisbane.
It is election ballot draw day:
It’s a small sample, but advocacy group Raise Our Voices has surveyed 500 young women about what they are looking at this election and the key findings include:
- 94% of respondents agree it’s important for the government to be diverse
- However, only 13% of respondents feel that people like them are represented in politics
- This dropped to 6% among culturally and linguistically diverse respondents
- 11% among LGBTQIA+
- 35% of respondents would consider a career in politics
- This rose to 45% among those aged 20 or under (with 30% of those aged 21-30)
- 87% of respondents felt that representations of women in politics by the media are mostly negative
- There was a high level of familiarity with recent media stories, including:
- Brittany Higgins’ allegations of assault in parliament (96% familiarity)
- Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame’s National Press Club address (93% familiarity)
- The release of Set the Standard: Report on the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces (2021), known as the Jenkins report (88% familiarity)
- Allegations against Christian Porter (57% familiarity)
- Given the salience of these events and conversations:
- 83% were more likely to make an informed vote
- 79% were more likely to sign petitions
- 70% were more likely to attend protests or political rallies
- There were two instances where the impact was more likely to be negative than positive:
- 44% are less likely to pursue a career in politics (v 23% who would be more likely)
- This was more pronounced among those living with a disability (57% were less likely)
- And for those in their 20s (49%)
- 37% are less likely to become a member of a political party (v 21% who would be more likely)
What doesRaise Our Voices want?
- A timeline for implementation and funding of the recommendations contained in the Jenkins review
- Political parties to create specific youth engagement strategies for their party membership
- Implement media reporting standards for reporting on women, political figures, and people from marginalised backgrounds
- Social media companies to agree to, and meaningfully implement, standards for content on their platforms
- Political parties should create affirmative action measures around diverse participation
- Media companies should set targets around elevating diverse voices and seeking opinions from diverse individuals
Scott Morrison will be making a defence election announcement in Brisbane today. We are expecting to hear from him soon.
Queensland LNP senator Amanda Stoker, who has been placed at number three on the Queensland LNP Senate ticket, and so is facing off against the Greens, Campbell Newman and Clive Palmer for the last Queensland Senate spot, is asking Liberal party supporters to contribute to a $100,000 “war chest” to keep a “Labor-Greens government” out of power.
AAP has put together Richard Marles’ comments on China and Scott Morrison’s comments on China as the Coalition continues in its attempts to stir up a national security debate:
Marles:
“Basing our actions in the Pacific on an attempt to strategically deny China would be a historic mistake.”
“Australia has no right to expect a set of exclusive relationships with the Pacific nations. They are perfectly free to engage on whatever terms they choose with China or, for that matter, any other country.”
“An attempt to engage in a calculated denial of China will only create a geo-strategic contest that Pacific Island countries will register with bewilderment, if not mirth.”
– Quotes from Tides that Bind: Australia in the Pacific by Richard Marles. Published August 2021
“Australia needs to earn the right to be the natural partner of choice. We are in a strategic contest with China.”
“We all get the threat that China represents to Australia. There is no disagreement about that. The question is what is Australia going to do about it, that’s what is criticised here.”
– Interview on the Nine Network, April 22 2022
Morrison:
“China provides a real stability to the region and frankly the world economy and stable growth from China is good news for Australia and the global economy.
– Press conference on strategic economic dialogue with China, September 18 2017
“We welcome Chinese investment. We have welcomed it for decades. The stock of Chinese investment in Australia in 2018 was more than eight times larger than a decade ago.”
“The infrastructure needs of the region are enormous and Australia welcomes the contribution that the Belt and Road Initiative can make to regional investment and to regional development.”
Address to the University of Melbourne, June 26 2019
“I find it outrageous that Labor would criticise us when their own deputy leader was actually advocating what the Chinese government has been seeking to do in our region.”
– Interview on the Nine Network, April 22 2022
Mark McGowan tests positive for Covid
It had to happen.
Via AAP:
Western Australian premier Mark McGowan has tested positive to Covid-19 while isolating at home with his family.
McGowan had initially returned a negative test after a family member contracted the virus, rendering him a close contact.
In a statement on Friday, the premier said he had taken another PCR test on Thursday and it had come back positive.
He said:
It is not surprising considering one of my family members is positive.
In accordance with the protocols, this will extend my quarantine period until I am hopefully cleared to leave home next Thursday afternoon, at the earliest.
I will continue to quarantine and work from home over this period.
The premier is scheduled to attend federal Labor’s election campaign launch in Perth on 1 May.
The federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, also tested positive to the virus this week.
McGowan did not provide any details on his condition but thanked staff at testing clinics.
I would also like to acknowledge the vital contribution of our committed health workers who have not only cared for my family, but also the many Western Australians who have been affected by this virus.
WA last week moved to the national definition for close contacts, requiring only household members and intimate partners to isolate.
Strict proof of vaccination and mask-wearing requirements remain in place.
Jacqui Lambie has released her first TV election ad:
NSW Health has announced it won’t be releasing daily press releases from Monday:
From Monday 25 April, NSW Health will no longer issue a routine daily Covid-19 media release. Covid-19 information will continue to be reported through NSW Health’s social media accounts and website each morning, with more detailed information and analysis contained in the weekly Covid-19 surveillance reports. A wide range of Covid-19 information and advice is also available on the NSW government website.
PM: ‘Australians can’t be themselves, are walking on eggshells’
That exchange continues and gets to the real nub of why Scott Morrison is standing so strongly behind Katherine Deves – because he wants to talk about “cancel culture” and appeal to Australians who feel they “can’t say anything any more”.
(Cancel culture doesn’t really exist, and in any case Deves has not been cancelled, but may have been silenced by the Liberal campaign, and the comments she has made were not from a decade ago, but as recent as early this year.)
Q: Yeah, exactly. Look, we all make mistakes. We all say the odd thing that’s wrong, that we regret. I’m not denying that, but there were a lot of really vicious comments in her past and to just sort of say a blanket, ‘oh well, I’m sorry for that’, doesn’t that go to her beliefs, though? Is this not different?
Morrison:
I think people do learn about these things over time, and I think they do learn, that they need to be more careful and more sensitive about the way they approach what are very sensitive issues. And this should be an adult, sensitive, mature debate showing respect for each other and it not being taken off into other issues around broader debates on sexuality. This is a practical issue of women and girls in sport and trying to get some common sense arrangements so girls and women get a fair go. That’s what it’s actually about at the end of the day. Now, those who disagree with her on that, I suspect they’re the ones who’ve been travelling over all her old comments and all of that for one simple purpose, so that they could take her out of the debate. Now, I’m not going to allow that to happen.
I think a lot of Australians feel sometimes that they haven’t expressed things well in the past. And so they walk around on eggshells in the office, they walk around on eggshells in their community and feel that they just can’t, you know, be themselves. And we all have to be sensitive about these things. But at the end of the day, this election is not about any of those issues.
There was then this exchange about the Liberal Warringah candidate, who Scott Morrison handpicked, Katherine Deves.
Q: OK. One of your candidates, Katherine Deves, has come under fire for her social media posts linking cross-dressing men, trans women to sexual predators, saying they are more like serial killers. Why haven’t you disendorsed her?
Morrison:
Katherine Deves is raising three girls of her own. She lives in Manly. She put herself through the Solicitors Administration Board course to become a lawyer, and she has been an advocate for standing up for women and girls in sport. And there are comments she’s made in the past, which she’s been very clear about were insensitive, and that’s not how she would seek to continue to pursue those issues to stand up for women and girls in sport. And lots of people have trolled over her old posts and all of those things. She’s made it very clear that she believes that they were insensitive. And so I think she should be given the opportunity to be heard on her own merits now as she’s putting herself forward as a Liberal candidate there in Warringah.
But I think it goes to another issue now, and that is where people have said things in the past, as she clearly has, and now she’s standing for public office, she knows she needs to be more sensitive about those issues. For what particular purpose mostly? So it doesn’t detract from the big point that she’s making, which is about having common sense when it comes to women and girls playing sport in this country and getting a fair go. And, you know, we can’t be running around all the time walking on eggshells, on everything.
… And there’s been quite a pile on, as you would’ve seen … and I’m not joining that pile on. And she has said that that’s not how she wants to pursue it. She believes those comments were insensitive and she’s moving forward. And I think people should give her a go on that basis.
China doesn’t ‘play by same rules’ as Australia – Morrison
It then comes to this exchange where Scott Morrison doesn’t rule out Solomon Island government officials were bribed by China:
Q: When you say China doesn’t play by our rules, are you saying that that China has bribed ministers, people in the Solomon Islands government?
Morrison:
We are very well aware of what China has done in many other countries around the world, and we have a very good understanding about how they operate in the Pacific. As prime minister, I think what is the best thing for me to say is they don’t play by the same rules as transparent liberal democracies.
Q: That sounds pretty loaded, it sounds like a yes.
Morrison:
What it sounds like [is] that they don’t play by the same rules as transparent liberal democracies.
Previously, Morrison and Peter Dutton, when addressing that question, have been careful to say “leaving Solomon Islands to the side” before speaking of “bribes”.
Back to Scott Morrison’s media blitz this morning. He was asked on the Seven network why Australia didn’t send a more senior minister to Solomon Islands.
Here is the exchange (as per the official transcript):
Q: So why isn’t our … foreign minister there? Why did we send junior people? The US is sending a delegation. It doesn’t feel like we’re taking this as seriously as you say.
Morrison:
Well, I disagree with you on that. We not only, I mean, they have made their decision. And so the foreign minister was not the right person to send at that time. We communicated a very clear message to the prime minister through the minister of Pacific that no one was going to convince anybody at that point, they had made their decision. And so we communicated a very clear message to the prime minister.
I’ve spoken to the prime minister on many occasions about these types of issues going back to my face-to-face meeting with him, both there in the Solomon Islands, at various other Pacific Islands Forum meetings. And we’ve been talking over a long period of time. And so these issues are far more complex than just sending a foreign minister and apparently that’s going to solve it all. That is a very simplistic understanding of the issue. This is very complex. In the Pacific islands, you don’t throw your weight around. That’s what I used to see from old colonial powers.
They don’t want to see that. They want to see family working together, supporting each other, which has been our approach. Now, as you’ve seen, the person who would be deputy prime minister of Australia, if the Labor party were elected, actually advocated exactly what China is doing in the region.
And I think that makes an absolute mockery of the shrill criticism of the government – that if the Labor party advanced over the course of these past few days, when the very person they claim to be their Pacific expert, Richard Marles, actually in August or thereabouts of last year, was writing to say that what China is doing right now is something they should be doing.
And I just think that that is what is incredibly concerning, that if Labor were elected, their deputy prime minister, the person who wants to be their defence minister, actually believes that this is what they should have done.
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