Anthony Albanese has hit back on claims he can’t be trusted on national security, labelling the Prime Minister’s recent attacks “fake news”.
Despite warnings from ASIO to tone down the rhetoric, Scott Morrison continued his personal attacks on the Labor leader on Friday.
“We’ve got an election coming up, where Australians have to make an important decision about who is best to lead them in these incredibly uncertain times,” he told reporters in Alice Springs.
“We’ve got Russian troops amassed on Ukraine’s border. We’ve got coercion on Australia’s interests here in our own region. We’ve got rapidly escalating militarisation in our own region.
“And I think Australians have to compare and contrast between the government I lead on national security and the alternative. Labor just doesn’t measure up to the mark.”
But the opposition leader claims Mr Morrison is just blowing hot air.
“What Scott Morrison is trying to do as a desperate political measure is to divide the country,” Mr Albanese said on the campaign trail in Darwin.
“It's not in Australia’s national interest to have a divided country based on fake news.”
His comments follow an ugly week in parliament, headlined by Mr Morrison and Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s attempt to paint Labor as soft China and weak on national security.
The clash culminated in the Prime Minister branding Labor deputy Richard Marles a “Manchurian candidate” – phrase referring to a politician being used as a puppet by an enemy power.
But late on Thursday afternoon, Mr Albanese hurled the same insult xjmtzywback at Mr Morrison.
“If you're looking for a Manchurian candidate, he sits over there, because, with the campaign that has happened this week, he has served the interests of China, not our national interests,” he said.
Unlike Mr Morrison, the opposition leader was not asked to withdraw his comment.
Asked on Friday if he stood by the observation – which Labor arched up about earlier in the week – Mr Albanese indicated he did.
“I was saying in terms of his position that he‘s put forward, the actions that he is doing at the moment, in the words of Dennis Richardson … the rhetoric of the government only serves the interests of one country – China, not Australia.
On Thursday, former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson accused the government of fabricating a division on national security where there was none.
Earlier, billionaire businessman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest added his voice to intelligence experts calling for politicians cool it.
“I think it's a little bit you know, reds under the bed,” he said.
“We‘ve had these so-called threats come and go. My parents told me about the 1950s – North America was gonna (sic) buy the whole country and take it back to California.
“Then the Japanese came in, look at we're all moving to Tokyo. I’ve seen these phases come and go.
“I just say to the political spectrum: calm down, we live in the best country in the world and – by the way – it’s got this great moat around it, a bit hard to attack, and a whole lot of hairy-chested friends.”
