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Factcheck: the Coalition says Labor always ‘takes China’s side’, but are the parties’ positions so different?
Did the opposition call Scott Morrison a ‘racist’ for shutting the border to China at the start of pandemic? Let’s look at the record
Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesRead Guardian Australia’s full federal election coverageDownload the free Guardian app; get our morning email briefingAs the Coalition campaign seeks to revive the talking point that Labor always “takes China’s side”, Scott Morrison implored reporters to “just look at the record”.
So we did just that and found the claims by the prime minister and his senior ministers are either factually inaccurate, misleading, or lack context.
What I don’t understand is that when something of this significance takes place, why would you take China’s side?
When I called out China for where the pandemic started and said there had to be an independent investigation into the origins of Covid – apparently this was the wrong thing for us to do. Labor said that Australia was at fault in calling for that and our government was at fault for doing that.
When we shut the borders at the start of the pandemic, they accused me of being racist about that as well. No, I was protecting Australia.”
When China were making decisions to apply trade sanctions and tariffs against Australia, Labor seemed to want us to reach a compromise with China rather than to stand up for Australia. When Anthony Albanese spoke at the National Press Club not that long ago, he actually suggested that we should negotiate or settle some of the points with China.
Have they backed the Australian government in standing up for Australia, or have they run the talking points, have they run the lines of those who are seeking to criticise Australia for the important decisions that we’ve taken in our national interest?
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