Category Archives: Australian foreign policy

Australia news live: mass Covid vaccination hub for Sydney could be operational in ‘couple of months’

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Gladys Berejiklian says a NSW Covid immunisation centre will be capable of administering 30,000 doses a week; EU denies blocking further shipments of AstraZeneca earmarked for Australia. Follow the latest updates, live

Australia needs to manage the increasingly complex relationship with China, even as the government seeks areas to diversify its export markets, according to a new report out this afternoon.

The Asia Taskforce – which includes the Business Council of Australia and Asia Society Australia – calls for a target of boosting Australia’s exports to 35% of GDP by 2030 (up from 29% in 2019).

Popular support for the open economy cannot be taken for granted. Retreating to old familiar relationships in western markets, falling behind in Asia literacy and failing to build connections with new Asian business partners should not be seen as a serious default choice when consumption in Asia will likely fuel future global growth.

The Greens are once again calling for an independent rapid review into the vaccine rollout to identify any issues and restore public confidence.

Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens spokesperson for health, said in a statement:

With targets missed, persistent problems with vaccine supply, and troubles getting the available vaccines to where they’re needed, the rollout of these vital jabs hardly inspires confidence...

We shouldn’t let this devolve into a game of finger pointing and blaming shifting between the federal and state governments. This pointless squabble doesn’t inspire confidence in the rollout, and can only serve to add further delays to the process.

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ALP national conference 2021: Anthony Albanese to announce $15bn Covid recovery fund – live

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Australian Labor party gathers online to endorse slimmed-down election platform and debate industrial relations, trade and foreign affairs. Follow all the latest updates, live

Delegate Nizza Siano has put forward this one:

Labor’s policy should be framed to provide a positive and compassionate approach by a Labor Government to the treatment of refugees, rather than a reaction to the punitive and cruel approach of the Coalition Government. Refugees and those seeking asylum in Australia are to be welcomed under a Labor Government as assets who enhance this nation and our economy and provide positive contribution to our strong multicultural society.

In this chapter, Michael Danby will move this motion:

Labor calls on China to abide by its own constitution and laws which expressly allows for the cultural autonomy of the Tibetan people within the People’s Republic.

Tibetans must be allowed, as they are under Chinese law, to freely practice their religion, to learn and speak their language and to have official documents in the language of the vast majority of people living in the Tibetan autonomous zone.

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Coercion or altruism: is China using its Covid vaccines to wield global power?

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Beijing has donated millions of vaccines to developing countries but its largesse often comes with conditions attached

In May 2020, China’s president, Xi Jinping, told the World Health Assembly its Covid-19 vaccines were “a global public good”, and their distribution would be part of Xi’s vision of a “shared future for the people of the world to work as one”.

But in the months since, China’s alleged “vaccine diplomacy” has been consistently criticised internationally for being rolled out with conditions attached, with allegations of expatriate Chinese nationals being prioritised, and the distribution of vaccines seen as a coercive tool with which to wield geopolitical influence.

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Australia urged to back plan to let poor countries make cheap copies of Covid vaccines

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Exclusive: union, health and aid groups plead with the Morrison government to support a WTO proposal to suspend vaccine patents during the pandemic

International aid groups, health organisations and unions are pleading with the Morrison government to support a World Trade Organization proposal designed to allow developing countries to make and sell cheap copies of patented vaccines, to achieve a quicker end to the global pandemic.

The WTO proposal would suspend Covid vaccine patents for successful jab formulas invented by pharmaceutical giants for the duration of the pandemic so poorer countries could acquire more affordable doses faster.

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Australian senator calls to recognise China’s treatment of Uighurs as genocide

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Independent Rex Patrick moves after similar parliamentary motions passed in Canada and the Netherlands

An Australian senator will seek support from fellow upper house members to recognise China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority as genocide, after similar parliamentary motions passed in Canada and the Netherlands.

The proposed motion – placed on the Senate’s notice paper for 15 March – looms as a test for the major parties at a time when Australia should join the international community in taking a stand, according to the South Australian independent senator Rex Patrick.

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Australia should resist the march of autocracy, but there will be consequences | Jonathan Pearlman

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The old world order is ending. The challenge for Australia is that the driving force behind the change is China, a country so crucial to our future in Asia

In June 1987, a group of world leaders met in Venice to plan global economic policy for the 21st century. The leaders represented seven of the eight wealthiest countries in the world; the Soviet Union was excluded.

Addressing the summit, US president Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as an example of “how not to run a country”. But he was less hostile towards China, which was then the world’s ninth-largest economy, just ahead of Spain.

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Australian government denies meddling in Cheng Lei case after Chinese criticism

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Foreign minister Marise Payne says Australia stands up for its citizens but that does not mean it’s interfering with China’s legal system

The Australian government has rejected China’s claims of meddling after Canberra called for the detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei to be treated humanely, while the head of the security committee has labelled the accusation as “absurd”.

Chinese authorities have confirmed that Cheng – an anchor for the Chinese state-owned English-language news channel China Global Television Network – has been formally arrested “on suspicion of illegally providing state secrets to foreign forces” after nearly six months of detention.

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Australian military to continue patrolling South China Sea as Beijing warns Taiwan independence ‘means war’

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Australia ‘monitoring developments’ as Taiwan reports an increase in Chinese aircraft in its defence zone

Australian military ships and aircraft will continue to patrol the South China Sea amid warnings from China that a declaration of independence by Taiwan would “mean war”.

With Taiwan reporting an increase in Chinese military aircraft in its air defence zone, and with Beijing cautioning independence forces against “playing with fire”, the Australian government is closely monitoring developments in the region.

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Press reset: can the Morrison government rebuild bridges with China – or is it too late?

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Despite a near record total of export goods to China last year, there are fears rocky relations between the two countries have yet to hit bottom

If anyone was hoping for a breakthrough in the relationship between Australia and China in 2021, the signs are not good. The year has started much as 2020 ended, with dozens of ships carrying Australian coal still stranded off the Chinese coast and with Beijing accusing Canberra of “weaponising” national security by blocking an investment proposal.

While the Morrison government is bracing for a protracted standoff with Australia’s largest trading partner in what officials call “strategic patience”, there are fresh questions as to whether Canberra has a comprehensive plan for managing the relationship with an increasingly assertive and powerful China.

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Australia coronavirus news live: Morrison says vaccinations to begin in mid-to-late February as Queensland quarantine worker tests positive

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High priority groups will begin receiving the vaccine earlier than anticipated; NSW south coast holiday locations on high alert; cricket crowd flocks to Sydney Test. Follow all the latest news and updates

Murphy says that over the second quarter of 2021, Australia will have vaccinated “a significant portion” of the population. That’s still mainly focusing on those first two priority groups.

He says:

The very last group that we might consider [vaccinating] is children. We know that children are at very low risk of getting Covid and transmitting Covid and the vaccine has not yet been thoroughly tested against children.

There will be vaccine hubs set up around Australia which only deliver one type of vaccine. That is to prevent confusion about which type of vaccine a person has been given, Murphy says, to ensure that people get two doses of the same vaccine.

A dose each of different vaccines will not cover you.

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Australia says China should allow in WHO Covid investigators ‘without delay’

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Foreign minister Marise Payne issues mild statement, but opposition parties attack China’s ‘unacceptable’ actions and ‘paranoia’

The Australian government has called on China to allow a visit by World Health Organization experts investigating how the coronavirus pandemic started, insisting the country should grant them visas “without delay”.

Canberra raised its concerns on Wednesday over reports that Chinese authorities had blocked the arrival of a WHO team investigating the early cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan.

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Australia ‘not for turning’ in dispute with China, UK envoy George Brandis says

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The high commissioner in London offers sharp observations on the dispute between Canberra and Beijing

Australia is “not for turning” in its dispute with China and must cut its reliance on supply chains “over which we had little to no sovereign control”, the country’s top envoy to the UK has said.

George Brandis, Australia’s high commissioner in London, argued the situation “must change” as he called for a trade deal between Australia and Britain to be completed by the end of this year.

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Australian government urged to press Trump to end US pursuit of Julian Assange

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Coalition backbencher says a presidential pardon for the WikiLeaks co-founder is the best way to end the saga

The Australian government is facing calls from its own Coalition backbench and the opposition Labor party to press the Trump administration to end the pursuit of Julian Assange after a British court ruled out the WikiLeaks co-founder’s extradition to the United States.

With the US government signalling it plans to appeal the court’s ruling, the Coalition backbencher George Christensen and the South Australian independent senator Rex Patrick were among Assange supporters who saw a presidential pardon from Donald Trump as the best way to bring an end to the saga.

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Australia insists WHO inquiry into Covid origin must be robust, despite China tensions

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Australia, whose early call for inquiry sparked furious Chinese response, says it expects ‘robust, independent and comprehensive’ report

Australia is pushing to ensure the global inquiry it helped trigger into the early handling of the Covid-19 pandemic doesn’t pull any punches – a move that has the potential to risk further recriminations from China.

Amid scepticism among several government backbenchers that the inquiry will fully address Chinese authorities’ early missteps and reporting delays, Australia is using its final months on a top World Health Organization board to press for the investigation to remain robust and independent.

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Australia news live: federal government takes China to WTO over barley tariffs

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Plus: aircrew driver tests positive for coronavirus in Sydney, and heavy rain and flash flooding forecast for northern NSW. Follow the latest updates

• Aircrew driver tests positive for Covid in NSW
• Follow coronavirus global news live

A severe weather warning has been issued for Wagga and much of the Riverina for flash flooding this afternoon.

Severe thunderstorms have been forecast for the entire region, all the way from Hay in the west, right across to the east coast, and from the Queensland border down to Tumbarumba.

⚡SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING⚡ for HEAVY RAINFALL. Warning current for much of central and eastern NSW and the ACT.
2hr Obs: 92mm @ Lismore.
30min Obs: 26mm @ Glen Alice, 25mm at Mt.Werong & 22mm @ Lake Burley Griffin.
⚠️Warnings: https://t.co/30woSZ6O2x#ifitsfloodedforgetit pic.twitter.com/L8OXMiSlAz

Victoria police commissioner Shane Patton has sought to differentiate between the police approach during the Black Lives Matter protest in Melbourne in early June and anti-lockdown protests that were broken up during the second wave, with many more fined.

Patton told a Victorian parliament Covid-19 committee on Wednesday that at the time of the BLM protest, the spread of Covid was not as big as it was later on in the second wave, and there weren’t the severe restrictions at the time that were seen later – in June, groups of up to 20 people could assemble.

We eventually made a decision to reluctantly allow that Black Lives Matter to go ahead, because of the emotion that was in the community, because of the emotion that was being displayed across the world.

And that’s what we did.

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Australian professor and son detained in Qatar for five months without charge

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Arrest of public health expert Lukman Thalib and son Ismail Talib came three months before US accused Australian-based son Ahmed Luqman Talib of links to al-Qaida

An Australian public health professor and his son have been detained in Qatar for almost five months without charge, and are receiving consular assistance from the Australian embassy.

Australian citizens Prof Lukman Thalib, 58, and his son Ismail Talib, 24, were arrested at their home in Doha by local authorities on 27 July, and are being kept at an undisclosed location.

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China tariffs offset by rising Australian iron ore prices due to ‘fear tax’

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Boosted iron ore prices due to anxious markets are likely to help federal budget’s bottom line, Deloitte says

Australia’s losses from trade tensions with China are being offset by rising iron ore prices, according to new analysis, which also predicts the Morrison government will announce a smaller budget deficit than originally forecast.

Deloitte Access Economics said Chinese government moves against wine, beef, barley, lobsters and thermal coal have cost Australia money “but we’ve more than made that up in overall terms thanks to iron ore – and the taxman will be a considerable beneficiary of that”.

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Australian politics live: Coalition to put forward IR changes; cruise ship ban extended

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Fair Work Commission to be given power to approve agreements that don’t guarantee workers are better off overall. Follow all the latest updates

Earlier, the Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally McManus, set out the union movement’s objection to the “extreme” industrial relations bill.
Those are:

On the other side of that debate:

Take the sand out of your ears – and let's hope we can soften your hearts. Because all this legislation does is push people further and further in the ground. Please Senators, vote no to this horrendous legislation. My full speech: https://t.co/MTYbj02hyw

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Australia accuses China of breaching free trade deal by restricting imports

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Trade minister Simon Birmingham says ‘targeted nature’ of China’s measures raise concern about its adherence to trade deal and WTO obligations

China appears to be breaching its trade deal with Australia by taking a series of “disruptive and restrictive measures” against Australian exports, the Morrison government has said.

As concerns grow among Australian exporters about the impact of a widening range of actions, the trade minister, Simon Birmingham, told the Senate on Wednesday all dispute settlement options were on the table.

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Australian politics live: NSW and Victoria to ease Covid restrictions; final sitting week of parliament

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NSW to lift tranche of restrictions while in Victoria it will no longer be compulsory to wear face masks in offices or cafes; federal parliament returns for the final sitting week of 2020 – latest updates

Victoria will begin accepting international flights again from today – a flight from Sri Lanka is about to touch down in Melbourne. All up, there will be about 125 travellers arriving as part of the hotel quarantine program in Victoria today.

There is no longer any private security guards as part of the Victoria program – and any worker has to work exclusively for the Victorian government.

The latest foreign interference laws are also due to pass parliament this week – these ones are the ones looking at agreements with foreign governments that private organisations and state governments have made.

States, Territories and local governments will have three months to handover agreements with foreign governments which @dfat "will carefully and methodically consider against Australia's foreign policy settings" #auspol @Birmo @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/pwT5PtCEta

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