Interview with Greg Jennett, ABC Afternoon Briefing

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING
MONDAY, 17 JUNE 2024

SUBJECTS: Australia-China Relationship; trade opportunities; renewable energy

GREG JENNETT, HOST: Now you will have seen the meeting in the Cabinet room there - it featured several of Anthony Albanese’s most senior Ministerial colleagues. Agriculture Minister Murray Watt was one of them. He joined us here moments ago.
Murray Watt, welcome back once again to the program. Now the path to stabilising the relationship with China was very well mapped out publicly today with a strong emphasis on renewal and revitalisation, said the Prime Minister. How and when will we know if these talks succeeded?

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES & FORESTRY: Well I think there's no doubt that this has been a very positive visit from Premier Li. Of course, the first visit from a Chinese Premier since 2017, and a very comprehensive range of issues has been raised today. Of course, I participated in one of those meetings that the Prime Minister had with Premier Li, and pretty much every single issue that people would expect to be raised was raised directly with the Chinese Premier.

We'd certainly be hopeful, in my space of agriculture, to see a resolution of the remaining suspensions, particularly around lobster - we'd be hopeful of that happening soon. And certainly the Prime Minister raised that directly and I would say it received a positive hearing from Premier Li. So we'll keep advocating on those kind of things. But I think across the board there's a range of issues that we've made progress and reason to be hopeful on a range of others.

GREG JENNETT: OK, I don't want to spend too long on lobster, but it is, as you say, in your area of responsibility. How was that positive response? How was that actually expressed?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, well, obviously I don't want to sort of go into too much detail about exactly the words Premier Li said. But as I say, when Prime Minister Albanese did raise this issue, along with the beef suspensions that remain in place, Premier Li, you know, acknowledged the progress we've made so far. He was very clear, I think, that he would like to see these issues resolved as well and that he'd like to see engagement between our respective agencies to make that happen.

GREG JENNETT: Do you think the whole era of economic or trade coercion is over now, or almost, as good as?

MURRAY WATT: I'd certainly like to think so. I mean, of course, there haven't been any new suspensions imposed by China since we've come to Office. It's actually been all the other way with suspensions being lifted. You know, from time to time there will be trade disputes between different countries. That happens not just with China, but I certainly hope that that is in the past and that's certainly the approach that we'll be taking.

GREG JENNETT: OK, let's move on more broadly, away from agriculture, Premier Li said ‘we had a candid exchange of views of some differences and disagreements and agreed to properly manage them’. What were those areas of disagreement?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah well, of course, the Prime Minister has given a press conference and run through some of the issues that were raised from our point of view, whether they be the remaining agriculture issues, some of the consular issues that we're aware of around relationship in the Pacific, some of the national security and defence issues. And my feeling was that Premier Li respectfully listened and acknowledged the concerns that Australia had. Of course, there are some issues that we have a difference of opinion and equally on his side, you know, there are some issues from his perspective about largely around the way that China is perceived by the world. And, you know, I don't think it's surprising that with a superpower that China is these days, they want to be respected and they want to be treated in a way that they feel that other countries are treated. We, of course, have our position on these issues. We're not always going to agree with them. That was canvassed quite openly. But I think what we can take from today - and this visit - is at least we now have an ability to have dialogue and agree where we can, disagree where we must, but have that communication.

GREG JENNETT: But that's not an end of itself though, is it? Particularly if we take military examples, encounters on what we would call the High Seas, international waters. They may not, of course. It's fine to have a dialogue, but ultimately, you want substantive resolution, don't you? And nothing about China's recent conduct internationally, would you agree, suggests that it's willing to do that?

MURRAY WATT: Well, we have made clear at all stages, both in this visit and previously, that we expect that China, like all countries, will comply with the ocean rules, with the law of the sea, with trade rules as well. We expect that of every single country, and that's been made very clear to China. Of course, there have been a couple of particular incidents involving some of our Defence Forces that Australia believes are unacceptable and we've communicated that in no uncertain terms to China. We would expect that we won't see any further incidents like that. If, unfortunately, that were to occur in the future, then we may be making that very clear. But our expectation is that China behaves in a way that does comply with those well-understood rules.

GREG JENNETT: OK, noted. Now, of the formal agreements signed, I'm not sure that we've seen the text of any or all of them just yet, but climate change is one. China is the biggest player in the world in renewable energy technologies. What is it that Australia seeks to do with this enhanced agreement today?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah well, this is a really interesting point. Both leaders in the meeting held with Ministers raised this issue around the opportunity that we have for greater collaboration in the climate change and energy space. Both countries have developed a lot of expertise, a lot of technology that can go towards dealing with this common challenge that we have as a world. But equally, both leaders made very clear that we can also see some opportunities in taking climate action. So, from Australia's point of view, again, there's great technology, great know-how, whether it be in sustainable agriculture, energy generation. Similarly, China clearly has a lot of that expertise as well. What we want to be able to do is to share that technology, share that know-how, so that not only our individual countries can benefit from that, but also the world at large.

GREG JENNETT: China's preeminent role in renewable technology is only as good as the raw resources that it can obtain as a giant manufacturing presence on the globe. Did Premier Li broach direct Chinese investment in critical minerals and other resources in Australia?

MURRAY WATT: Look, my recollection of the meeting that I was in was that he didn't raise that specifically, but he certainly did raise China's interest in investing in our resources sector in a more general sense. And again, I'm sure that that will be a very large topic of conversation when both the Prime Minister and Premier Li now visit Perth. Perth is clearly a big resources state. That will be a very major part of discussion. But again, I think it's no surprises that China has an interest in our critical minerals resources-

GREG JENNETT: And what, as a matter of policy, is Australia's position then?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah so, we don't have a blanket ban on China or any other country investing in our critical minerals sector. We do see this as a massive opportunity for Australia. It's a key linchpin of our Future Made in Australia agenda that the Prime Minister has been talking a lot about. We think that Australia has the capacity to become an alternative supplier to the world of critical minerals. Currently, China is by far the dominant player in that sector, and we think there's a role for Australia to play there. When it comes to Chinese investment, as I say, we don't have a blanket ban on China investing, but of course, they would need to comply with our foreign investment review framework. And what we've said in that framework, through the work Jim Chalmers has done, is that there will be some areas where national security considerations are large in our thinking. This would clearly be one of them.

GREG JENNETT: Yeah, that'll be the test won’t it, ultimately, what gets through and what doesn't.

MURRAY WATT: Exactly.

GREG JENNETT: Murray Watt, we thank you, as always.