Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Monday in the business section of The Australian the Chairman of Anglo American mining denigrated democratic systems in Australia and around the world by saying that leadership in Australia was incompetent compared to the leadership that he has seen in China. That's a very unfortunate remark, no matter how badly behaved people here were a couple of weeks ago. It does not reflect well on a major Australian businessman, born in Wollongong, to prefer the authoritarian system in China to the system here. I'm sure it doesn't reflect the views of most people in Australian business.

It has brought to mind yesterday's well-written column by the international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Peter Hartcher. He pointed out that former Treasurer of Australia Mr Hockey had been importuned by a very arrogant Beijing-based businessman, who lit up a cigarette in his presence without permission, put his feet on the chair and demanded the right to buy Rio Tinto and a number of other leading Australian companies. The theme of Mr Hartcher's column was that there is an atmosphere in the Australian political sphere and in the Pacific and East Asia of arrogance from the regime in Beijing. Of course, we've seen the incredibly cruel crackdown on a million Muslim people in East Kazakhstan. They are virtually living in concentration camps. They are forced to eat products and drink alcohol that are not au fait with their religion. That's extremely regrettable.

Mr Hartcher pointed out that, at the Pacific Islands Forum, the Prime Minister of Nauru had to actively sit down an official of Beijing who wanted to interpose himself and demanded to speak before ministers of the Pacific Islands Forum who were there on an invited basis. I and Mr Hartcher have noted that a leading Chinese academic in Beijing has said that Beijing's diplomacy needs to be improved. We in Australia have a good commercial trading and economic relationship with the People's Republic of China. We've had in the last five years $200 billion of Chinese direct investment, according to the Foreign Investment Review Board. We should cling to that good trading and economic relationship. As the Beijing academic observed, they need to improve their diplomacy.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 193, the time for members' constituency statements has concluded.