CHARLES WOOLEY
Andrew Hastie’s opinion piece last week in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age comparing our current relationship with China to the failure of the European democracies in the 1930s to see the threat from Hitler’s Germany was not universally welcomed, not even in his own party.
But Hastie isn’t just another troublesome Liberal backbencher. He is the head of the powerful and increasingly important Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee.
This is a bi-partisan outfit never very keen to spill the beans to journalists or the general public. It would be surprising if Hastie put his opinions out there without his committee mates knowing what he was doing.
Hastie’s problem was — as Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese observed — that no one ever won a political argument by mentioning the war. We don’t know what the “quiet Australians” were thinking, but many noisy Australians howled Hastie down.
Even fellow Liberals were saying: “Come on mate, we hear what you say, but trade and jobs are much more important than your squeamish reservations about China being a totalitarian country with territorial ambitions in our patch. Just chill dude!”
What Hastie wrote about China’s blatant Asia-Pacific ambitions in the public domain would have come as no shock to the Australian Government.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed as much: “I don’t think it’s offering anything new,” he said.
Rightly so, because everything scary and unpleasant about the way China behaves (and a whole lot more, apparently) was already known to the Government through a secret dossier compiled by sometime China journalist, foreign policy expert and prime ministerial adviser John Garnaut.
The document was commissioned by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in late 2016, looking into — among other things — clandestine Chinese interference in Australian politics.
The Garnaut-ASIO report remains top secret, but not as deeply buried as so many of his father’s reports on education and climate change.
The Garnauts might be like the doubly cursed Cassandra, the ancient Trojan seer who was cursed by the gods to accurately prophesy the future and then cursed again that no one would ever believe her.
When Cassandra spotted the blindingly obvious Trojan Horse deceit, no one was
listening. “Cassandra, give it a rest” they said. “The Greeks clearly want peace. They want to be our friends and trading partners. This generous gift means an end to distrust and it means money and jobs for the economy of Troy.
“So, stop being such a negative Nellie, get with the Belt and Road and let’s just accept the benefits of Greeks bearing gifts and wheel the wooden horse into the fort.”
As the gates opened to allow the hollow troop-filled magnificent horse to roll through the impregnable walls of the city, one leading citizen looked down at the splendid gift and announced: “Isn’t it beautiful? It just shows what can be achieved when man turns his mind from thoughts of conquest and war.”
I can’t precisely source that naive quote, but I’m sure I’ve heard it repeated quite a lot recently.
Winston Churchill once said he felt like Cassandra while trying to convince a British government bent on appeasement that there was a storm coming.
I haven’t mentioned the war, but I wonder if Andrew Hastie sees himself as a touch Churchillian. Pity he’s not quite there yet, or we would be able to enjoy a higher level of debate in the Parliament. Everyone would have to lift their game.
Even without Julie Bishop it was quite a week in foreign affairs. Who knows where all this is going?
At the same time as the chair of the Parliamentary Intelligence Committee was sharing his unease about our Chinese benefactors, out of the blue floated the idea that we might accept American missiles based in our far north (hopefully not too close to that Chinese-owned port in Darwin.)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison was quick to tell us that a US missile base was not in contention, but that instead we will help US President Donlald Trump bash up Iran.
Still, on the American missiles, it’s hard to escape the feeling that we are being prepared for something bigger, and that the game has somehow changed and is about to go ballistic.
Meanwhile, Australia has been advising caution in Hong Kong where, like the rest of our region, we can only watch on nervously. I’ve been to HK a few times since the handover to China. I like the people and admire the bravery of those lawyers, journalists, academics and ordinary folk who are prepared to speak out in the name of freedom and, in so doing, risk their own.
In the unlikely event our own Chairman Will ever goes bad, declares himself emperor for life and builds concentration camps, would I be brave enough to stand up for abstract concepts like liberty and freedom of speech?
Wouldn’t we all, like most of the Chinese population, see the commonsense in giving up those dangerous notions in return for a comfy, conformist life?
Let me give Chairman Will the drum, if he wants to go down the increasingly popular totalitarian route, I don’t think here in River City too many fearless journalists, academics and lawyers will be alongside me marching on the Parliament.
Indeed, on second thoughts, I might just watch the whole thing from across the road in the safety of the bar of the Customs House Hotel.