ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: It’s a great honour to be here at the Great Wall of China. This is one of the wonders of the world, some 21,000 kilometres long. This particular section was built in 1505 - we are literally standing on history. History in recognition of the longevity of Chinese culture and Chinese achievement as well, and it’s my great honour to be here for the first time as Prime Minister. I came here as part of a parliamentary delegation at the end of the 1990s, a bipartisan delegation. And when I became a Member of Parliament in 1996, I wanted to make sure that I understood the rise of China. It was very clear that China was going to be a very powerful country over the years to come. And the economic achievement that we have seen China achieve over recent decades has seen literally hundreds of millions of people lifted out of poverty. It has also been a rise that has benefited our regional economy, including of course Australia.
And over the past few days, I’ve had important meetings as well with the business community. The fact that we had, yesterday at the business roundtable, representatives of financial institutions such as ANZ, education institutions such as Monash and the University of New South Wales, as well as the great resources companies, BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue and others, is symptomatic of the importance for the Australian economy that a good relationship with China means. That is, a relationship that is built upon the fact that one in four of Australian jobs is trade dependent and our largest trading partner by a long distance is China. And that’s why yesterday’s roundtable came up with some practical initiatives going forward, including further work on steel decarbonisation between Australian businesses and Chinese businesses - the work that’s taking place with Chinese companies that were represented around that roundtable as well, hosted by the Business Council of Australia as well as their Chinese counterparts. I thank Bran Black and the Business Council of Australia for the work that they’ve put into this visit.
Yesterday was also a very busy day. I spent more than two hours with President Xi and an equally long time with Premier Li, as well as having a constructive meeting with Chairman Zhao of the National People’s Congress, who has agreed to lead a delegation to Australia to reciprocate the delegation that came from Australia to China led by the President of the Senate, Sue Lines, at the end of last year. So, we look forward to welcoming that delegation in Australia. Yesterday was an opportunity as well for us to develop the relationship between Australia and China. I’ve said consistently that we’ll cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, but engage in our national interest. It is very clear that it is in our national interest for us to have a positive relationship with China. Where there are differences, we’ll talk about them, but not be defined by them. And that is critical going forward.
Here today of course I have the sense of history following in the footsteps of the Labor Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, who was the first Prime Minister to visit here in 1973. It followed the correct decision that he made as leader of the Labor Party in 1971, and that was of course at the time when that was a controversial decision, to recognise the People’s Republic of China. Of course, at that time in the world, the United States, led by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger of course, also engaged historically. It’s important that we build stability and security in our world. And part of that has to be positive engagement. That’s what I’m doing here. And I’m very honoured to be here today.
JOURNALIST: PM, yesterday at the CEO Roundtable, Premier Li talked about protectionist measures on the rise in the world and that was a reason for deeper Australia-China cooperation. He then went on to talk about things like Deepseek and AI, issues that have previously been red lines in terms of where Australia is willing to deepen its relationship with China. In light of his comments, do you have a view? Are those issues still off the table in terms of where we can cooperate with China because of the national interest that you say we go into these meetings with?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we’ll deal with issues on a case-by-case basis based upon our national interest, as it’s perceived at the time. But as a general principle of course, one of the things that I emphasise – I say the same thing in Beijing as I say in Bankstown, which is that the Australian Government supports free and fair trade. It’s in the interest of the world to have free and fair trade. And we’ll continue to engage that way.
JOURNALIST: But do you acknowledge that there are limitations to the relationship with China outside of that Free Trade Agreement?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course we engage on a case-by-case basis, as we do. Not specifically just with China, but across the board. That is how we deal with things. We support our national interest. That’s my job. And my job is to support Australian jobs. And that is what we do, consistently across the board, and support Australia’s national interest.
JOURNALIST: Yesterday, the Chinese readout of your meetings said that Albanese reaffirmed Australia’s commitment to the One China policy and its opposition to Taiwan independence. Do you agree with the framing and interpretation of the way the Chinese have portrayed this, and could you tell us precisely what you said about that?
PRIME MINISTER: I agreed that Australia has had a longstanding bipartisan position that has supported the One China policy. That is our position, and that’s been the position of governments for a long period of time in Australia and is still the bipartisan position in Australia.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in the hours around your meetings with President Xi yesterday, the Russian Foreign Minister was in Beijing as well for a series of meetings. Do you still view the Ukraine-Russia conflict as the central geopolitical issue at the moment globally? And how do you reconcile our relationship with China given its relationship with Russia?
PRIME MINISTER: There are a range of conflicts in the world. Too many. And what we need to do is have less conflict, not more. And our position on Ukraine is consistent, is clear, is advocated publicly and privately. We’ll continue to provide support for Ukraine that’s consistent with our position about national sovereignty.
JOURNALIST: Thanks, Prime Minister. We have seen this kind of peace through trade –
PRIME MINISTER: Although, Stephen Dziedzic might get two questions, because he’s looking particularly sharp.
JOURNALIST: We have seen this kind of peace through trade approach between Europe and Russia, and that did not really turn out too well. In fact, it led to significant vulnerabilities in energy supplies and whatnot. Are you not concerned that this will happen here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, our relationship is very different. I don’t think you can translate one thing across some other part of the world of which Australia not a participant. So, I’m not sure what the basis of that is.
JOURNALIST: So the premise is engagement -
PRIME MINISTER: Well, our engagement is constructive. It’s not just about trade. It’s about people-to-people links, it’s about a range of engagement in our region and we’ll continue to do that and I’ll continue to have further engagement for the rest of this year. Summit season hits soon, and many of those summits, Australia and China will be represented.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just back on the Chinese readout of your meetings yesterday. Did you specifically use these words, that you oppose Taiwanese independence?
PRIME MINISTER: You’re trying to quote a Chinese readout that I haven’t seen -
JOURNALIST: It was in quote marks though.
PRIME MINISTER: What we do is continue to support a One China policy. We support the status quo, by definition we don’t support any unilateral action on Taiwan. That’s been our position for a long period of time. Nothing’s different there.
JOURNALIST: PM, thanks. One of the things that the Premier mentioned in his CEO Roundtable speech last night was complaining about Chinese companies, he wants them to be treated fairly in Australia. He raised concerns about foreign investment restrictions and things like that. Is there any room at all to revisit those, particularly given that Chinese foreign investment is on the way down in Australia and there’s concerns among the business community that we’ve basically shut the door?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no. We have a case by case issue when it comes to foreign investment. It is viewed not on the basis of any one country, but on the basis of an objective assessment of our national interest. One of the issues that was raised yesterday, that we’ll certainly follow up, is the suggestion that existing contracts when it comes to LNG are impacted – we don’t interfere with those sovereign issues when it comes to gas, whether it be for China, for Japan or for the Republic of Korea.
JOURNALIST: PM, thank you. The Global Times has fired a shot across the bows on the sale of Port of Darwin today, saying this is an issue that needs to be dealt with. Just wondering, firstly, did that issue come up in your two-hour discussion with Premier Li? And secondly, are you prepared for Australia to be put back into the deep freeze over that issue?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the answer is no. And the answer as well that shouldn’t come as any surprise – I’ve had the same position as when I was the Shadow Infrastructure Minister when the decision was made to provide a federal incentive by the Liberal Party to flog off the Port of Darwin. My position hasn’t changed over a long period of time.
JOURNALIST: No to the first?
PRIME MINISTER: No to the first, as I said yesterday.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said from Beijing to Bankstown - obviously a lot of meetings, a lot of talking, a lot of grandeur. It’s day four of this trip. More broadly, how do you think it’s going, and what could you say to the people of Bankstown watching at home? What has been achieved so far?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s been really constructive. And for the people of Bankstown or the people of Box Hill or the people of Bassendean, what we need is to engage in our national interest and to always be focused on cost-of-living, be focused on jobs, be focused on the living standards of Australians. And that depends upon our trade, but it also depends upon our good relationship and being able to support peace and security and stability in our region. And we have had yesterday – I had meetings for around about eight hours yesterday. It was a very long meeting. But it also showed respect for both sides. The fact that President Xi didn’t just have a meeting, but we had a lunch where President Xi as well invited Jodie to attend that lunch was a sign of respect to Australia, to our country. Just as the dinner last night that was attended by all of the businesspeople, leaders, from Australia as well as business leaders here in China, was a wonderful event. I’ve got to say that the band there in the Great Hall played a different version of Paul Kelly’s To Her Door, of Midnight Oil’s Power and the Passion, of a range of songs as well. That obviously took them a long period of time, and those gestures matter. Respect matters between countries. And I think, I took that as being a very warm gesture indeed. And they did it very well, I must say, as well. Powderfinger as well - they did the full kit and caboodle. So, it was a splendid occasion, it was very warm, the engagement, the informal engagement. So as well as the formal meetings, the opportunity to sit down and have a meal and talk about personal issues, talk about things that aren’t necessarily heavily political, is really important - part of diplomacy. And one of the things that my Government does is engage in diplomacy. We don’t shout with megaphones, we engage in diplomacy. That is in Australia’s interest.
JOURNALIST: Now, in all the suburbs starting with B across Australia and everywhere else that an average punter is watching the significant investment of time you’ve made to come to China. You’re saying the relationship’s stabilised, we’re reliant on China for trade, so what’s the justification for spending $360 billion on nuclear submarines for the region if diplomacy is working?
PRIME MINISTER: We are investing in our capability and we’re investing in our relationships.
JOURNALIST: But why do we need it?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re investing in our capability and we need a defence force. And we make no apologies for investing in our capability to give Australia the defence and security assets that we need. I’ve gone through, in long terms, if you want a long explanation of why nuclear subs, then I could do that. But there’s things to do today.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, I know you’ve alluded a little to Gough Whitlam already, but Whitlam stood roughly in this spot in 1971 as Opposition Leader. What sense do you have today of his importance in setting up the China relationship, with the good and the bad, that we have today?
PRIME MINISTER: There is no question that Gough Whitlam made the right decision in 1971 and that Australia has benefited from that. It certainly is understood here in China that that was an early decision and was a decision that took courage. You know, it has made a difference to the relationship and Gough Whitlam, of course, was about after a period of, shall we say, less than adjustment to the changes that were occurring in the world. The decisions that Gough Whitlam made, whether it was to end Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War, whether it be the recognition of China, whether it be opening us up. He expanded Australia’s horizons, and that was really important for us as a nation. Australia is an outward-looking nation today. We engage, we are a medium-sized power who are able to talk with respect around the world. Our engagement, whether it be with the decision to recognise China, Vietnam, what occurred going back to a previous Labor government – of course, the recognition of support for Indonesian independence. All of these things are important in where Australia stands as a sovereign nation.
JOURNALIST: Gough Whitlam even for years after he made that brave decision, Prime Minister, there were long-held hopes that China would open up and democratise under various leaders. That didn’t come to pass. Do you acknowledge that how we understand China and its strategic and military aims is vastly different from the time when Gough Whitlam was making those decisions?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the world is different. The world is different. What the role of a leader is, is to adjust to the world as it is, rather than as you would like it to be. And China has a different political system from us - that was acknowledged by all of the leaders in the discussions yesterday, but that means that we do have differences. What’s important is that we’re able to talk about those differences. To talk about them wisely and to acknowledge that they’re there, but to not allow those differences to define us.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just one question. Yesterday Angus Taylor said that the Coalition would support Australia making, what he called, principle or in-principle commitments to the defence of Taiwan under the US alliance. Although he also said that that shouldn’t be codified - it’s not clear exactly what that means. But do you believe, do you have any reflections on –
PRIME MINISTER: That’s way above my pay grade, to try and define what Angus Taylor means. His own party can’t work that out, and they have different things to say at different times. So, I’m not going to respond, because it’s below my pay grade.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, we're here, as you said, where Gough Whitlam as an Opposition leader came, well, he came here as Prime Minister -
PRIME MINISTER: As Prime Minister in ’73 -
JOURNALIST: But he came here in 1971 as Opposition leader, advocating Australia change profoundly its foreign policy, as an Opposition leader going against the government position. Are you concerned about politicising the Australia-China relationship? Chinese state media says that Labor has a special relationship with China that’s better than the Coalition. I guess secondly, do you think that? Do you think Labor has a better China policy or relationship than the Coalition?
PRIME MINISTER: My job is to be Prime Minister of Australia and to represent the Australian Government. That’s the capacity that I’m here in and I continue to do so to the best of my ability, each and every day. And each and every day I don’t think about any interest of a political party - what I do is think about the national interest. And I continue to do that each and every day, and I’d encourage everyone in the Parliament to do the same, including those commenting on international relations. Thanks very much.