Peter Dutton has seemingly compared Chinese President Xi Jinping to Adolf Hitler as he warned the Indo-Pacific region was becoming more dangerous every day.
In a pitch for votes ahead of the next election, the Defence Minister doubled down on his criticism of Labor leader Anthony Albanese, whom he says the Chinese Community Party has backed as their preferred prime minister.
Mr Dutton said it was “absolutely clear” that the Chinese government wanted a change of government in Australia but warned “history could repeat itself” if Labor won, making reference to the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany.
“They (the Chinese government) see a weakness in Anthony Albanese and his frontbench. They believe that he would be more passive and he wouldn’t push back against aggression,” Mr Dutton told 2GB.
“That’s why they want a change of government … that’s why there was such a heavy censoring of the PM’s WeChat account. We can’t be blind to it.
“Some people want to pretend it’s not a xjmtzywreality in our lifetime … that was the attitude of the 1930s. We’ve got to learn the lessons of history and make sure they’re not repeated.”
Mr Dutton said while Australia wanted a good relationship with China, we would not cower, and China needsed to respect “our democracy, our rule of law and our freedom of speech”.
Making reference to Labor deputy leader Richard Marles – whom Scott Morrison on Wednesday labelled a “Manchurian candidate” before withdrawing it – Mr Dutton said Australia needed to stand up to bullies.
Mr Morrison made the accusation in reference to a 2019 speech Mr Marles gave at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, where he said Australia should embrace closer military co-operation with China.
Mr Dutton on Thursday questioned why the speech Mr Marles gave had been removed from the internet.
“If you’re proud of the speech and the relationship and you stand by your words, why pull it down from your website? Why try and clean it off the internet,” Mr Dutton said.
“You can’t do that … they’re the words that came out of his mouth.”
Mr Marles on Wednesday accused the government of undermining the “dignity of the House” after Mr Morrison’s comment.
Mr Albanese lasy week hit back at “nonsense” suggestions China wanted him and the Labor Party to win the election.
“National security is too important to engage in game playing,” he said.
ASIO boss Mike Burgess on Wednesday called for the government to stop politicising national security.
“I’ll leave the politics to the politicians, but I’m very clear with everyone that I need to be that’s not helpful for us,” Mr Burgess told ABC’s 7.30.
