![]() And Foreign Minister Marise Payne stated during a March 1 speech: ![]() Prime Minister Scott Morrison, for example, on February 21 stressed the fact that he ‘was the one who shut the borders to China at the start of the pandemic’ and ‘the one who called for there to be a fair dinkum investigation as to how this pandemic started’ despite ‘everyone attack me for doing it’. Members of the Coalition government sought to establish their PRC policy as plainly more muscular. Over the month of February, charges of ‘ appeasement’ were repeatedly levelled at the Australian Labor Party (ALP), with Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese being accused of being Beijing’s ‘ pick’ in the upcoming election. The Australian Labor Party (ALP), initially goaded into a like-for-like slanging match, subsequently cleaved to repeatedly insisting that bipartisanship on national security and foreign policy continues to be the order of the day.īeyond domestic politicking, February and March saw concerning developments on the global stage which may ultimately have a significant impact on Australian strategic interests and necessitate an overhaul of its strategic thinking: what the Russia-PRC joint statement and the Russia-Ukraine crisis might portend, and a leaked draft security agreement between the PRC and the Solomon Islands throwing up the possibility of a PRC strategic foothold in the Pacific. ![]() The Australian government in February went on the offensive with respect to the opposition Labor Party’s record on national security, and, in particular, its approach to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), resulting in an increasingly heated clash of views and political rhetoric.
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