China relations: Aussie senator calls for return to Australia’s trading heyday 20 years ago

Australia should diversify its trading partners and stop relying on China amid growing tensions with the communist superpower, Queensland Senator Matt Canavan has said.

Appearing on the Today Show on Wednesday morning, he said Australia did not need trading partners who were ‘bullies’.

‘Twenty years ago we basically did no trade with China. I can remember what it was like in Australia 20 years ago, it was a pretty good place,’ he said.

‘We are still going to be a pretty good place as long as we keep our values and principles dear and cherished.’

His comments come as the relationship between both nations deteriorates, with ever more crippling sanctions slapped on Australian products by its biggest trading partner.

China has slapped enormous tariffs on Australian goods, including beef, barley and wine (pictured, a shopper in Beijing on November 23)

Beijing has imposed increasingly punitive tariffs on a growing list of Australian exports including coal, timber, copper, beef, meat, lobsters and barley.

China’s simmering anger was inflamed in 2018 when Australia banned Chinese tech giant Huawei from Australia’s 5G rollout on security grounds.

This was further compounded when prime minister Scott Morrison called for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, an outbreak which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan.  

Earlier this month, China turned away Australian wine bound for Shanghai, seizing  imports ordered by more than a dozen wine exhibitors which had been intended to show at a regional fair.  

A 200 per cent tariff has since been slapped on Australian bottles. 

Senator Canavan has raised fears that the relationship between both trading partners would never be able to return to how it once was. 

Senator Matt Canavan said Australia was in a’pretty good place’ 20 years ago when it did not have trade relations with China (Pictured: Australia during the Olympics in 2000)

Australia’s relationship with China was strong for many years but now faces turmoil (pictured, Sydney 20 years after the Olympics)

‘What we must now do is to as soon as possible diversify our trade relationships to find business, to create business with friends not bullies,’ he said. 

‘The way the Chinese government has been acting is not one of a friend. We shouldn’t want to stay in business with that type of government and country for too long.’

He suggested Australia respond by putting a levy on iron ore exports.

‘They need our iron ore, it’s the one commodity they haven’t touched because they can’t get it anywhere else and we export so much to them. A small levy would pay off all the exporters hurting from the tariffs.’

Last week China slapped significant tariffs on Australian wine, claiming exporters had been dumping wine into its market – which is when prices are artificially lowered.

Last month tonnes of live lobsters were left stranded at Chinese airports and clearance houses while awaiting inspection by Customs officials (pictured, Western Australian rock lobster)

Australia’s $1.2 billion wine export industry to China has been gut-punched by a 212 per cent tariff (pictured, Australian wine on sale in the Chinese city of Nantong on November 27)

Queensland Senator Matt Canavan (pictured) has called for Australia to diversify its trading partners amid the growing tension with China

‘There is dumping of imported wines originating in Australia … (and) it has been substantive,’ the ministry said in a statement on its website.

‘There is a causal relationship between dumping and material damage and it has been decided to implement temporary anti-dumping measures … in the form of a deposit from November 28.’ 

The move will be a massive blow to the industry as Australia exports 39 per cent of all product to China. 

Relations hit an all-time low this week after Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lijian Zhao shared a doctored image on Twitter showing a grinning Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child. 

The artwork referred to revelations made last month in the Brereton inquiry, claiming 25 Australian soldiers unlawfully killed 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners. 

The Communist Party’s newspaper, The Global Times, has risked aggravating tensions further by publishing a new doctored image showing Scott Morrison screaming at an Afghani child.

The image was published alongside an article slamming the Australian prime minister for demanding an apology from the artist and calling for the Asian superpower to take down the ‘repugnant’ fake image.

The publication also included a cartoon depicting a smiling, blood-spattered kangaroo in its latest issue.

The latest cartoon was created by artist Chen Xia and featured alongside a piece criticising Mr Morrison for taking aim at Mr Fu.

The Global Times editor Hu Xijin told the Australian prime minister to ‘slap himself in the face’ and ‘kowtow to apologise to Afghans’ in response to Mr Morrison’s demand for an apology

The publication said Mr Morrison and the Australian government should apologise to the artist ‘whose work was groundlessly smeared as a ”false image”.’

It also claimed the Australian government should take full responsibility for the deteriorating relationship with China.

‘It needs to seriously reassess the damage done its own international optics caused by this double standard outburst regarding ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘human rights”.’