The Morrison government is hardening its stance against China even further. Just the day after the communist nation’s deputy ambassador unleashed a diatribe against Australia at the National Press Club, the Australian PM has announced new laws to curb China’s influence in Australia.
By hauling into line treacherous state governments who greedily sign deals with foreign governments that go against Australia’s national interest.
Yes, we’re looking at you, Daniel Andrews.
Scott Morrison will legislate to tear up Victoria’s multi-million-dollar Belt and Road Initiative agreement with Beijing, creating laws that will also ban a raft of other deals with foreign governments found to be against the national interest.
In an unprecedented move against Chinese interference and the protection of state secrets, the use of external powers under the Constitution to direct state, territory and local governments on national security issues will effectively kill dozens of agreements with foreign governments and institutions.
The Foreign Relations Bill doesn’t just apply to agreements with China. The government announced a raft of agreements, with countries from Russia to Israel and the US, that would be examined by the government. But the 11 agreements with China named easily outnumber all the others combined.
And its not just state governments who will be put through the wringer.
The Foreign Relations Bill, which will be introduced to parliament next week, also extends to universities and captures any questionable agreements between Australian public institutions and foreign governments.
As The Australian’s Simon Benson writes, “Australia’s ability to speak with one voice on China has been consistently undermined by the often mindless deals between state governments and the Chinese Communist Party behind the commonwealth’s back”. These include not just Victoria foolishly signing on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, but the mind-boggling decision by the NT government to hand the Port of Darwin over to a Chinese state-owned corporation – a decision so perplexingly idiotic that even the Obama administration was flabbergasted.
The move could have rippling effects for the private sector, with the Foreign Minister given powers to review any private infrastructure contracts that a state government signed as part of a BRI agreement with China.
The list of agreements that could be scrapped under the proposed legislation will range from sister city agreements, popular with local governments, to memorandum of understanding deals and include all legally and non-legally binding arrangements.
But this is a bill aimed above all at the recklessly greedy Victorian Labor government.
Despite persistent warnings from the Morrison government and security agencies, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews last year signed up to President Xi Jinping’s BRI program, which has been used across the globe to exert China’s soft-power reach.
The laws will put deals past and future under the microscope, and try to expose China’s silent invasion to the sunlight of public scrutiny.
State and territory governments, including departments and agencies, councils and universities must have their stocktake of agreements with foreign powers finalised within six months of the Foreign Relations Bill being brought into law.
The bulk of Australian government and university arrangements with overseas powers are linked to co-operation with foreign government-linked research institutes, universities, municipalities, states and departments in the areas of science, tourism, trade, infrastructure, education, culture and health.
China will have a massive dummy-spit now that they’ve been caught with their hand in the till. They’ll find plenty of useful idiots from the left-elite to argue their case.
The Morrison government’s new laws, responding to concerns raised by security agencies over research theft and espionage, are expected to attract criticism from Beijing and the university sector which rely heavily on international collaboration.
But no one should be under any illusion that China is Australia’s friend.
If you enjoyed this BFD article please consider sharing it with your friends.