AUSTRALIA NEEDS STRONG LEADERSHIP!
By Cliff Reece
Johannes Leak’s cartoon above sums up what many people are thinking, namely that we have a nice but weak Prime Minister. Great cartoonists like him and his father, Bill, are able to reflect our views with just simple drawings and a few chosen words.
On this occasion, Prime Minister Albanese is depicted as a weak puppy dog on a leash held by the Chinese Communist Party’s Premier, Li Qiang.
And that’s based on how he has responded to Communist China’s outrageous and arrogant dealings with our country - and many others in the region.
This even extends to how Sky News journalist Cheng Lei was treated by Chinese embassy officials who blocked her from appearing on camera at a signing event at Parliament House during Li Qiang's visit.
Footage shows a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official purposely standing between Ms. Cheng and the camera, preventing her from being filmed.
An Australian official asked him to move but the CCP official remained in place.
The Prime Minister initially denied any knowledge of the incident when asked about it, despite footage of Lei being blocked uploaded to the internet for more than an hour.
“Well, I didn't see it,” he said in response to a question.
Later on, he described it as “ham fisted” and merely a difference in values and political systems. No Albo – it’s bullying!
"We have different values and different political systems, and we saw some of that... with the attempt that was pretty ham fisted to block Cheng Lei... there was a clumsy attempt," the Prime Minister said.
"The Australian officials did the right thing and intervened, but that showed that they're different systems that are there."
Peter Dutton hit out at Albanese’s response to the treatment of Lei, with Mr Dutton demanding the Prime Minister “grow a backbone and stand up for our country”.
“I do want to point out that the Prime Minister clearly misled the Australian people yesterday when he got up and did a press conference and said that he heard nothing of it, he didn’t understand what the question was or didn’t know anything about it,” Mr Dutton said.
“Please grow a backbone and stand up for our country. The job of the Prime Minister is to make tough decisions and to call out bad behaviour and to make sure that you do the right thing by Australians and that’s what our Prime Minister should do.”
Cheng Lei was then stopped from attending a media event at the Hyatt in Canberra even though she was registered to attend.
Once again, the CCP got away with outrageous behaviour!
And where was our PM – why didn’t he intervene?
Amnesty International Australia (AIA) has also raised concerns about the behaviour of pro-CCP supporters who "intimidated and attempted to silence peaceful demonstrators" at Parliament lawns in Canberra.
In a news alert released on June 17, the organisation defended the right to protest "without fear of violence or reprisal" by Chinese human rights activists, Falun Gong practitioners, along with Australia's Tibetan, Uyghur and Hong Kong communities, during Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit.
The behaviour of pro-CCP activists, such as physically harassing anti-CCP protesters and blocking banners raising awareness about the CCP's religious persecution from view, "poses a threat to the right of protest in Australia," the AIA noted.
Chinese-born Australian journalist and comedian Vicky Xu said she was injured during her encounter with the police when participating in an anti-CCP protest near Parliament House.
Ms. Xu, who's known for her reports on China's human rights abuses, said the Australian Federal Police (AFP) told Chen Yonglin, a former CCP diplomat who defected to Australia, that he couldn't burn the CCP flag.
While Chen was preparing to heed the advice, the police "insisted on confiscating the flag" and later attempted to take the flag by force, Ms. Xu said.
So, how did our Prime Minister respond to these aggressive tactics by CCP thugs on Australian territory?
As usual, he brushed them off as he did with all the other even more serious issues that he should have raised with Li Qiang. His approach is consistent - just be nice to Communist Chinese officials, regardless of what they’ve done.
He set this tone prior to Li Qiang’s visit to Australia in a commentary in The Australian newspaper.
Glaringly absent was any mention of Tibet, Hong Kong, or Xinjiang, and China’s deepening and far-reaching repression under President Xi Jinping that will, if left unaddressed, have dire consequences for Australia and the stability of the region.
Albanese’s article, and in fact all the speeches and press conferences he made while the Premier was here, is consistent with the Labor Party’s stated approach on China, which is to “co-operate with China where we can, disagree where we must and engage in our national interest”.
This has been code for suggesting that human rights issues are simply a disagreement and, as suggested by Albanese, “points of contention”.
But they are not.
“Human rights are universal, a system of global rules and governance that promote and protect all of our fundamental rights and freedoms,” said an AIA spokesperson.
Albanese’s weakness as a leader is in sharp contrast to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s obvious strength of character and growing confidence.
Many people see Dutton as a ‘hard man’ but that’s only partially true. People who know him generally describe him as being a traditional family man with a kind, gentle nature.
But he doesn’t suffer fools gladly and he stands by his principles. And he can be tough when necessary.
In that respect, he is the complete opposite to Albanese.
Despite the obvious incompetence of several of his ministers, Albanese refuses to replace them. Dutton would never have allowed Andrew Giles, Claire O’Neill and Chris Bowen to have continued in their current roles – and, for that matter, neither would John Howard or Bob Hawke have done so when they were Prime Ministers.
And in terms of ‘principles’ – what are Albanese’s principles, does anyone know?
He is known as ‘Each-way Albo’ for good reason.
He has expressed completely opposite views on China, climate change, asylum seeker boat turnbacks, new coal mines, the republic issue, allowing local ALP branches to choose candidates, political makeovers, stage 3 tax cuts, negative gearing, the Israel/Palestine conflict, inheritance tax, and even his thoughts on John Howard. *
How can anyone believe anything he says when he constantly changes his views depending on who he is talking to?
With Peter Dutton you know where you stand. And he has ’real life’ experience from his earlier pre-politics roles including being a police detective for several years.
This coming election should be about leadership because that is clearly what we desperately need right now.
We don’t need a ‘handsome boy’ who wants to befriend everybody – we need someone who can be tough when he needs to be, and that limits the choice to only one candidate, Peter Dutton.
As our country’s greatest PM Sir Robert Menzies (pictured below) said: “A nation can be great only if its leaders are great."
Thanks to Nina Nguyen at The Epoch Times, Advance Australia, Amnesty International Australia and Human Rights Watch for their contributions to this article
* For further information go to: https://www.advanceaustralia.org.au/each_way_albo_s_top_ten_political_each_way_bets