February 11, 2022
Defence Minister Peter Dutton has claimed Beijing is backing Labor to win the election as the government ramps up attempts to paint Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese as soft on China.
Mr Dutton insinuated Labor had been the target of a foiled plot to plant candidates into parliament at the next election revealed by the nation’s spy boss, sparking an outraged response from the opposition.
“We now see evidence that the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government has also made a decision about who they will back in the next federal election, and that is open and obvious,” Mr Dutton said during a fiery question time.
He defended the comments, saying they were a “reflection” of what ASIO chief Mike Burgess had disclosed on Wednesday night.
“Mine is a reflection of the Chinese government, the actions of the Chinese
government,” he said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier accused Mr Albanese of being an appeaser towards China, describing the Labor leader as being their candidate.
Mr Albanese and manager of opposition business Tony Burke complained that Mr Morrison and Mr Dutton had breached parliamentary standing orders by accusing the opposition of treason and sedition, but were rebuffed by Speaker Andrew Wallace.
“He should not be permitted to use question time to just make things up,” Mr Albanese said of the PM.
Mr Burgess did not name the party and election targeted or the government behind the plot, but said attempts at foreign interference in Australia’s democracy were being made at all levels of government in all states and territories and nationally, and many countries were involved.
Mr Burgess said a wealthy “puppeteer” with ties to a foreign intelligence service had employed an intermediary to help find prospective candidates, offering them favourable coverage in foreign language media and to assist with campaign expenses.
While the plot was disrupted, there was potential for successful candidates to unknowingly be used to feed information about policy to the foreign government or vote a particular way on issues.
The head of Parliament’s powerful intelligence committee, James Paterson, said he had a “pretty fair idea” who the culprit was but could not reveal classified information.
“I have said previously, though, that the principal foreign espionage and interference threat does come from the Chinese Communist Party, but it isn’t the only threat,” he told 3AW.
Senator Paterson said there were good reasons to keep the identity of the plotter secret, including not revealing ASIO’s methods, and defamation laws, with people in the past successfully suing media outlets for publishing similar accusations of foreign interference.
The ABC reported Russia had been behind the plot, quoting “intelligence sources” familiar with the matter.
Australian National University security and intelligence studies professor John Blaxland said China and Russia were the most obvious nations capable of attempting such a plot “but there are others”.
“There are a range of countries interested in ingratiating themselves with China and Russia who could be facilitators,” he said.
He said while Australia’s relatively open political system was vulnerable, one advantage was the separation of powers, at the federal level and between the states.
“That means any would be foreign interferer has got a tougher job. They’ve got to approach it from multiple prongs and that leaves them more exposed,” he said.
