Just before the Reserve Bank of Australia hiked interest rates, and Without A Fight stormed home in the Melbourne Cup, China’s premier, Li Qiang, adopted a flirtatious tone in Beijing with his guest Anthony Albanese. Tongue firmly in cheek, Li said to the Australian prime minister: “On our way into the hall, I shared with you that I see on social media of China … there are many sharing of short videos about your trip to China … including a video of you running along the river with a yellow…
Tag: Australian politics
Australia news live: Shorten labels Greens’ Senate walkout ‘political grandstanding’; Birmingham says Gaza child deaths a ‘terrible function of war’
From 39m ago Shorten labels Greens’ Senate walkout ‘political grandstanding’ Government services minister Bill Shorten has labelled the Greens decision to walk out of Senate question time yesterday as “political grandstanding”. Yesterday, the Greens stormed out of Senate question time to protest what they say is Albanese government inaction over the conflict in Gaza. You can read more from my colleague Paul Karp here: Speaking to the ABC just earlier, Shorten argued the Greens’ walk out doesn’t help “a single soul anywhere”: I think that is just political grand standing.…
Albanese in China: five things we learned from his talks with Xi Jinping
Anthony Albanese met China’s president Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday night. Here are five things that came up when the two leaders spoke for the first time on Chinese soil. Yang Hengjun The prime minister raised the plight of the Australian writer and democracy activist Yang Hengjun. Yang has been detained by China for almost five years. During the diplomatic thaw which played out in the run up to Monday’s meeting, China released the Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who had been detained…
Albanese and Wong evoke Whitlam in bid to defrost China relations
Australia’s relationship with China has been stuck in the bottom compartment of the diplomatic deep freezer since 2020. Given this, it seemed appropriate that Arctic weather heralded the arrival of Anthony Albanese to the Temple of Heaven on Monday morning. When I say Arctic weather, it was cold enough to snap-freeze extremities. The wind ripped across the World Heritage site, sand-blasting rows of ceremonial chrysanthemums and threatening to upend a prime ministerial lectern. One Australian reporter, minus a coat, enfolded himself in bubble wrap to try and maintain some body…
Albanese China trip: PM stops short of saying he trusts Xi but points to ‘promising signs’ with Beijing
Anthony Albanese has stopped short of saying he trusts the Chinese president but says he’s convinced he is building a constructive relationship with Xi Jinping. Ahead of Albanese’s first meeting with Xi on Chinese soil – the first engagement at that level since 2016 – reporters asked the prime minister on Monday whether he was convinced he could trust the Chinese president. During his recent state visit to Washington, the US president, Joe Biden, advised Australia’s prime minister to trust China “but verify” during this attempted rapprochement. This was in…
Australia news live: Westpac profit surges to $7.2bn despite ‘increase in stress’ for customers
From 30m ago Westpac rewards shareholders after profit surges to $7.2bn Jonathan Barrett Westpac has recorded a 26% lift in annual net profit to $7.2bn after profiting from increased margins on its home and business loan books amid rising interest rates. The bank’s CEO, Peter King, said the result was pleasing and that shareholders would be rewarded with a $1.5bn buyback. He said there had been a “modest increase in stress” among customers due to rising interest rates and elevated inflation. Our mortgage portfolio, which is our largest, is demonstrating…
Albanese to echo Whitlam as he prays for a good harvest in Xi talks
Fifty years ago, Gough Whitlam visited the Temple of Heaven in Beijing as part of an historic visit to China to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic. Whitlam’s visit to the Beijing landmark produced an iconic image. In the photograph, the newly elected Australian prime minister is captured with his ear to the circular Echo Wall in the world heritage site. In the background, the Australian prime minister is watched by Stephen Fitzgerald, Australia’s first ambassador to China. Five decades later, Australia has a substantial diplomatic presence in the…
Anthony Albanese’s meeting with Xi is a step towards rebuilding trust between China and Australia – but can it last?
Anthony Albanese’s trip to China – the first by an Australian prime minister since Malcolm Turnbull’s in 2016 – has become a symbol of his effort to stabilise Australia’s relationship with China. In the lead-up to the trip, we saw progress on many of the frictions left over from the Morrison years. Such a quick turnaround in bilateral relations is a credit to the Albanese government. But can this stabilisation endure and overcome many challenges to come? One of the biggest long-term risks to a stable bilateral relationship are the…
Can Anthony Albanese catch the dragon’s tail to defrost and reboot Australia-China relations? | Katharine Murphy
Five decades ago, almost to the day, Gough Whitlam raised a brimming glass to the party chairman Mao Zedong and the Chinese premier Zhou En-lai after delivering a speech at a welcome banquet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. This story might be new to you, so let’s step through the history. Whitlam went to China in 1971, while he was still opposition leader – ahead of Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking official visit in 1972. Completely unaware of Nixon’s impending diplomatic overture, the then Australian prime minister Bill…
The PM is heading to China and the relationship with Beijing has thawed. But will trade ever return to normal?
Anthony Albanese’s upcoming China visit will be the first by an Australian prime minister since Malcolm Turnbull in 2016. Much of the media attention will be on irritants in the relationship, such as the four-year detention of the Australian writer Yang Hengjun and rising tensions in the South China Sea. But economic ties will also feature highly, with the prime minister scheduled to attend the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. How important is two-way trade? China dwarfs all other nations when it comes to Australia’s trade, accounting for almost…