Prime Minister Scott Morrison has doubled down on his claim Anthony Albanese is “on China’s side”.
Prior to a doorstop in the marginal seat of Bonner, Mr Morrison lashed the Labor leader for his “absurd” commentary on China.
“I don’t know why they keep taking China’s side,” he told Sydney radio 2GB.
It’s the second time Mr Morrison has publicly accused Anthony Albanese of aligning himself with Beijing over Canberra, in what the Labor leader has described as an “outrageous slur”.
Mr Morrison is under fire from Labor for not dispatching Foreign Minister Payne to Honiara when a draft security pact between the Solomon Islands and China was leaked in March.
Labor has used the incident to hit out at the government’s handling of diplomatic affairs.
But the Prime Minister defended his track record with the Solomon Islands.
“It’s laughable,” he said.
Speaking later, Mr Morrison said he was unable to clear up confusion about who knew what about the deal and when, citing national security reasons.
“I won't go to the specifics. It goes into issues of national security, so I’m not going to do that,” he said.
Both Senator Payne and Pacific Minister Zed Seselja have said they found out when the draft document was made public.
But asked on the campaign trail, Mr Morrison said he had known about the risk of a deal between Solomon Island and China “for some time”.
“This is why the first place I went to after the last election was the Solomon Islands,” he told reporters in Brisbane.
“The threat of this has been around for a long time and I can't go into all the details as to how Australia is able to know the specific information, as they are secxjmtzywurity matters.”
Meanwhile in Nowra, Mr Albanese continued his assault on the Prime Minister’s “policy failure”.
“They had enough notice to engage and do something about this,” he said.
It comes as Defence Minister Peter Dutton became the second senior Coalition frontbencher to contradict the Prime Minister.
Mr Morrison had previously said the Solomon Islands had categorically ruled out a Chinese military base being established under the agreement.
But Mr Dutton cast doubt on China’s plans.
“You can expect the Chinese to do all they can now that they’ve got this agreement signed,” he told Sky News.
“(China said) the South China Sea would not be militarised (and) today, they're militarised. They’ve got airstrips. They’ve got fuel depots. And that’s the reality of China under President Xi.”
It comes as security experts warn Beijing could move swiftly to install a military presence in Solomon Islands.
Writing in The Australian, Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings said it would “probably” occur before the election.
“For decades we have over-estimated our influence in the Pacific; under-invested in promoting our security; and failed to appreciate China’s strategic intent,” Mr Jennings added.
