Morrison government asleep at the wheel when it comes to China, Labor says

The Morrison government has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to the relationship with China, while its handling of a submarine project has made Australians less safe, the deputy Labor leader has declared.

In a sharpening of the opposition’s political attack following months of restraint during the coronavirus pandemic, Richard Marles accused the Coalition of mismanaging ties with Australia’s largest trading partner by failing to speak with a single, clear message.

Marles, who is also Labor’s defence spokesperson, said on Tuesday it was a “deeply complex” relationship that “needs to be managed by the adults in the room”.

“Right now the adults – such as they exist in the government – are asleep and they are leaving the field vacant to fringe dwellers on the government side who in my view are doing significant damage to what is a critical relationship for this country,” he told the National Press Club in Canberra.

“The truth is you need to have an adult, sensible, nuanced, evolved sense of how you are going to manage the relationship. And this mob simply don’t have it, and they don’t give expression to it.”

Although he did not name them, Marles appeared to be referring to Coalition backbenchers including George Christensen, who has accused China of “economic infiltration of our nation” and of committing a “bastard act” by taking trade actions against Australia.

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Marles said it didn’t help when government MPs wrote op-eds likening China to Nazi Germany – something that the intelligence committee chair, Andrew Hastie, did last year prompting a furious reaction from the Chinese embassy in Australia.

Labor’s deputy leader said trade tensions had the potential to cost jobs at a time when Australia was experiencing its first recession in 30 years. When Australia got through to the other side of the coronavirus crisis, many workers would “wake up with a really rude shock” about the implications of those tensions.

Asked how a Labor government would take a different approach to the relationship, Marles said it would draw up a clear set of guiding principles and speak with one voice.

While he credited the work of professional diplomats, he argued diplomacy at a political level had been “hopeless”.

Marles said China presented a lot of challenges for Australia’s national interest, and Australia needed to have “the space within our relationship and the courage” to express a view when those interests differed. For example, it was important for Australia to raise human rights issues.

He reaffirmed Labor’s position that freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea should remain an option for the Australian Defence Force – although he said only governments could make a call on operational matters.

Marles said the China relationship was complex and “not one which lends itself to saying that we should be hardline all the time or accommodating all the time”.

He contended the Morrison government’s recent “muscular” language about China had “done nothing to improve Australia’s strategic circumstances”.

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By contrast, he said, the government had mismanaged the program to build 12 new submarines – something which, if handled properly, “would materially change Australia’s ability to engage with the world” and “give us more choices about our strategic circumstances”.

He described the government’s approach to the submarine program – now estimated to cost in the order of $90bn after several delays and amid uncertainty about the level of Australian industry involvement – as “one giant fiasco”.

He said it was expected to be 2040 before the fourth new submarine would be operational – a wait that seemed “an eternity” given the fast-moving strategic trends in the Indo-Pacific.

“Because of Scott Morrison’s prime ministership, Australians are less safe,” Marles said. “Our national security has been profoundly compromised.”

Marles was granted a permit by Australian Capital Territory authorities to travel to Canberra by car from Victoria, which is battling a second wave of Covid-19 infections.

Marles, who wore a mask until he began his speech, said he had “followed every health protocol and more in order to be here today to hold the Morrison government to account”.

The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, was in the audience to watch the speech.