PM takes China dig at Marles

PRIME Minister Scott Morrison has defended his decision to not brief Labor about the historic AUKUS pact until less than 24 hours before it was announced, suggesting the Opposition would have leaked it to China.

“I mean, you’ve got the deputy leader of the Labor Party (Corio MP Richard Marles), who would have been sitting in such a briefing, who had frequent flyer points for visiting the Chinese embassy in Australia,” Mr Morrison said on Monday. “I mean, seriously, this was one of the most secure and highly confidential agreements the Australian government had entered into since ANZUS.”

His comments came after it was revealed Mr Marles attended 10 meetings with Chinese officials in the past five years amid rising tensions with the country.

Mr Morrison has come under fire over reports US President Joe Biden insisted the landmark AUKUS agreement had bipartisan support before it was formed.

But the PM waited until the afternoon before it was unveiled in a 7am address last September to brief senior Labor figures.

He said allegations that he misled the US were “completely false”.

Mr Morrison said the AUKUS deal, which involved building at least eight nuclearpowered submarines, did eventually receive bipartisan support.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese slammed the PM for “always looking for a conflict and a division”.