Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications and Cyber Security) Share this | Hansard source

Today was a sad, sad day in Australia's parliament. Today we saw the spectacle of an Australian prime minister who either didn't know or didn't care that he was doing the bidding of the Chinese communist party in our parliament. He either didn't know, was too stupid, was out of his depth on national security and defence or didn't care and just put his own short-term political interests first. DFAT has made it clear that the Chinese communist party—this is no secret, we all know it—seeks to 'exploit social and other divisions in countries to pursue its interests'. That is very apparent. We know the work of the United Front around the world trying to divide democratic governments in Liberal societies in order to pursue the agenda of the Chinese communist party. This Prime Minister either didn't know or didn't care and took the bait, hook, line and sinker. In fact, he didn't just take the bait; he was the trout that jumped into the boat.

At another time in a different strategic context we had a term for this, 'a useful idiot'. That's what we saw in the parliament today, the Prime Minister as a useful idiot of the Chinese communist party. However, the extraordinary things about what we saw today is that they can't even do things competently. Just like every scare campaign the Morrison government are running at the moment, they are so divided that they run both sides of their scare campaigns. Today we saw the utterly disgusting spectacle of my friend the member for Corio having his integrity impugned in this parliament. I won't repeat the slur because it was unbecoming of the Prime Minister and the parliament, and the Prime Minister did reluctantly withdraw it subsequently. But this slur came in the same week that the Minister for Defence, his so-called partner in crime in this ridiculous scare campaign against the Labor Party, gave an interview to Peter FitzSimons in the 9 newspapers. Let me quote what Peter Dutton had to say about the member for Corio two days before the Prime Minister's absurd attack on him in the parliament today:

On the current frontbench my first pick would be Richard Marles with whom I have a long-standing friendship. I have a friendship with a number of other Labor MPs, past and present, but Richard Marles I think has a particular quality and capacity and intellect that if you're being objective you would admire.

This is the man who the Prime Minister smeared two days later. This is the man whose integrity was, absurdly, questioned two days later.

It did jog my memory, though, hearing a ridiculous Liberal Party scare campaign when it comes to Corio. It took me back to the 1938 Corio by-election. The Tories have a long history in this country. They were the United Australia Party back then, they weren't the Liberal Party, but the Tories have always loved a scare campaign on national security, no matter how poor their record. In the 1938 Corio by-election, Robert Menzies, who later urged negotiations with Hitler 10 days after the invasion of Poland, ran a scare campaign against our great wartime leader John Curtin, a hero of this nation, with the absurd campaign slogan—

this was the campaign slogan in the Corio by-election in 1938—'The eyes of Hitler are on Corio.' This is the legacy of those opposite in running ridiculous scare campaigns on defence and national security.

There's John Curtin, a hero of this nation, who gave his life to serve this nation—

who saved this country in the Second World War—

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