Answering a question about how Labor came to support the AUKUS pact,he said:“The answer lies in Anthony Albanese’s reliance on two seriously unwise ministers:Penny Wong and Richard Marles.
“Penny Wong took a decision in 2016,five years before AUKUS,not to be at odds with the Coalition on foreign policy on any core issue. You cannot get into controversy as the foreign spokesperson for the Labor Party if you adopt the foreign policy of the Liberal Party,if you are on a unity ticket to deny the Liberals any wedge on foreign policy and defence.
“You may stay out of trouble,but you are compromised. Self-compromised.”
Keating was particularly personal in his criticisms of Wong during a question and answer session,saying:“Running around the Pacific Islands with a lei around your neck handing out money,which is what Penny does,is not foreign policy. It’s a consular task. Foreign policy is what you do with the great powers:what you do with China,what you do with the United States.
“This government,the Albanese government,does not employ foreign policy.”
Keating said of Marles that he was “well-intentioned” but was “completely captured by the idea of America”.
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Underlining his increasing isolation from the party he once led on foreign policy and defence,Keating revealed he had approached Albanese’s office for a meeting in February about the AUKUS pact but had not received a response.
He also received no reply from Albanese in the same month when he emailed the prime minister a “long paper” on the importance of sovereignty on foreign policy.
“I don’t think I suffer from relevance deprivation,but I do suffer concern for Australia as it most unwisely proceeds down this singular and dangerous path,” he said.
Keating presented a largely benign view of China’s rise,saying it was “not the old Soviet Union” and was “not seeking to propagate some competing international ideology” to the United States.
“The fact is China is not an outrider,” he said.
“China is a world trading state – it is not about upending the international system.”
Keating said:“Every Labor Party branch member will wince when they realise that the party we all fight for is returning to our former colonial master,Britain,to find our security in Asia – 236 years after Europeans first grabbed the continent from its Indigenous people.
“That of all things,a contemporary Labor government is shunning security in Asia for security in and within the Anglosphere.”
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news,views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletterhere.