Scott Morrison says he ran out of time to impose sanctions on China over human rights
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- 17 Feb 2023
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Australia’s former PM urges new government to apply sanctions amid questions why he stopped short of taking such action when in power
The former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has defended his failure to introduce sanctions against Chinese officials over human rights abuses, saying he ran out of time before his election loss.
His comments to a conference in Tokyo on Friday prompted the Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, to declare: “I’m not sure how much advice it would be sensible to take from Mr Morrison on foreign policy.”
Wong was responding to Morrison’s suggestion that Australia should “demand and expect” an end to China’s tariffs and bans against a range of Australian exports, rather “be thankful for” initial progress to date.
“I have made clear we believe it is in the interests of both countries, including China, for those trade impediments to be removed,” Wong told reporters in Canberra.
Morrison visited Japan for a symposium organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of parliamentarians that urges democracies to take a strong coordinated stand against the Chinese Communist party.
He urged the Albanese government to consider “whether our new sanctions regime should be applied to any Chinese nationals for human rights abuses, especially in Xinjiang”.
Morrison argued there was “certainly credible and actionable evidence” to impose targeted sanctions despite Beijing’s denials.
The call sparked questions about why his government stopped short of taking such action between December 2021, when its Magnitsky-style sanctions laws passed parliament, and the May 2022 election.
Morrison told the symposium on Friday the timeframe was a “challenge”.
He suggested his government only had time to use the new powers for an initial set of sanctions against Russian officials. That related to the original case that sparked the international campaign for new targeted sanctions powers named after the late tax adviser Sergei Magnitsky. Read More…
