The last fortnight will go down as one of the most absurd in Australia’s political history. What began as a leadership challenge to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull from his home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, spiralled into a wider revolt by his front bench and eventually led to another contest for the Liberal Party’s leadership, this time without Turnbull. The contenders were Dutton, treasurer Scott Morrison and deputy leader of the party and foreign minister Julie Bishop. Scott Morrison emerged as the winner and became Australia’s new prime minister while Josh Frydenberg, the erstwhile environment minister, became his deputy.
Malcolm Turnbull resigned from the parliament marking an end to a meteoric political career. Julie Bishop, too, resigned from her position as foreign minister, in what many perceived as a blow to Australia’s foreign policy. Her resignation and subsequent revelations of internal party politicking to keep her out of leadership contention added to the atmosphere of gloom and disillusionment in the wake of the leadership spill. Marise Payne, former defence minister, has assumed the role of foreign minister in Morrison’s cabinet while Christopher Pyne has become the new defence minister.
Scott Morrison faced an important test in his first week as prime minister with an important visit to Indonesia, that his predecessor was scheduled to make. The visit was largely deemed successful with the two countries formally elevating ties to a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’ which would entail regular ministerial meetings and closer cooperation on security matters. More importantly, Australia and Indonesia finalised a free trade agreement (FTA), after years of negotiation, which would slash tariffs on 99 per cent of goods traded between the two nations.
Australia followed in the footsteps of the US to ban Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from the country’s 5G mobile rollout citing security risk concerns. Chinese law makes it mandatory for organisations and citizens to assist with gathering intelligence, potentially making ‘Huawei’s equipment a conduit for espionage’. Huawei and the Chinese government reacted sharply to Canberra’s decision, criticising Australia for displaying ‘strong ideological prejudice’ and discrimination against China’s companies. Huawei also blamed the Australian government for xenophobia and racism. Beijing’s state media issued a veiled warning to Canberra stating, ‘Those who wilfully hurt Chinese companies with an excuse of national security will meet their nemesis.’ In retaliation, the Chinese government has banned Australia’s leading news website, ABC, citing its violations of cyber regulations, without specifying how. Australia’s decision on Huawei was followed by news that Japan and India are considering following suit.
The US has cancelled funding worth $300 million to Pakistan due to the latter’s failure to clamp down on militant groups. The Trump administration accuses Pakistan of providing safe sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban. This comes in the wake of deepening Moscow-Islamabad defence ties and is likely to make the new Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan’s choices starker, as he moves to address the country’s massive debt crisis. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo touched down on Islamabad for a brief meeting with Mr Khan, before departing for India for a ‘2+2’ defence and foreign ministerial meeting. At the time of writing, US and Indian officials are preparing for the ‘2+2’ meeting with an important military communications pact, a maritime intelligence-sharing agreement and a defence ministers’ hotline said to be on the table.
The UN released the report of the independent fact-finding mission on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar last week which has called for Myanmar military chiefs to be tried for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report also calls for the imposition of an arms embargo and targeted sanctions against individuals who authorised the crimes. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres briefed the Security Council at a meeting to commemorate the first anniversary of the September 2017 crackdown on the Rohingyas. Nearly a million Rohingyas were subjected to mass-murder, rape and torture in the Rakhine state last year and around 700,000 were driven to seek refuge in Bangladesh. In response to the UN report, Myanmar has jailed two journalists who led the investigation into the atrocities, on charges of breaching a law on divulging state secrets.
In the midst of a ratcheting trade war between the US and China, President Donald Trump opened up another front of attack by accusing Beijing of stalling progress on Washington’s attempts to denuclearise North Korea. In a series of tweets last week, Trump claimed that Pyongyang, being a major Chinese ally, is under ‘tremendous pressure’ from Beijing due to the ongoing trade wars between the US and China. China, on the other hand, responded by saying that Trump is trying to shift blame to hide his own failures vis-à-vis North Korea. An attempt to resolve the trade disputes between Washington and Beijing failed earlier this fortnight with no end to the current crisis in sight.
Kakadu 2018, Australia’s largest multilateral naval exercise, began last week off Darwin, with China participating for the first time. This year, 27 nations are participating in the biennial exercise to improve naval interoperability in the Indo-Pacific region.
US Senator, former presidential candidate and war-hero, John McCain breathed his last on 25th August. Speaking at his funeral, former presidents George Bush II and Barack Obama eulogised his patriotism and commitment to the nation and paid tributes to his fairness, dignity and grace.
Significance for Australia
A week is a long time in politics, they say. As the dust from last fortnight’s turmoil in Canberra settled, experts questioned the rationale of the latest leadership crisis and reflected on the ‘democratic pantomime’ that has come to feature so prominently in Australian politics over the last decade. Analysts especially rued the end of Julie Bishop’s career as a foreign minister, one who was always ‘well-liked, well-briefed and effective’ and will go down as one of Australia’s finest politicians to fill that portfolio. Her role in launching the Colombo Plan initiative, expanding Canberra’s diplomatic footprint in the region and salvaging aid funding to Pacific nations, was significant. Nonetheless, some experts argue that political chaos notwithstanding, there remains a strong bipartisan consensus on Australia’s current policy trajectory on national security issues and ‘a hardening line on China’.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is said to have started his innings on a positive note with a successful visit to Indonesia though analysts say he has big shoes to fill on maintaining momentum in relations with Jakarta. The timing of the free trade deal is significant as Indonesia is due for elections in April next year and the opposition is running on a platform of protectionism. It was thus critical for Morrison to travel to Jakarta urgently and to build on the close friendship between Turnbull and Indonesia president Joko Widodo to conclude the FTA before the elections. Analysts say that Jakarta has been equally anxious to finalise the deal as it has the potential to rescue the falling value of the Indonesian Rupiah. On another note, experts believe that Morrison may have been distracted by the suddenness of the political spill which explains why his visit was cut short and the scheduled travel to Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand was cancelled.
Australia has made the right decision on Huawei, according to leading experts in cybersecurity. Canberra has displayed an uncompromising stance on protecting its critical national infrastructure from potential cyber espionage, reaffirming its opposition to Chinese underhand tactics.
Australia has welcomed the recent UN report on the Rohingya crisis and has renewed its call for justice to be meted out to the Rohingya refugees. The Australian High Commissioner in Bangladesh remarked, ‘Australia is deeply disturbed by the conclusions of the Fact-Finding Mission. Australia consistently has urged Myanmar to take action on human rights violations.’ In this regard, Canberra should be very concerned about the news of the journalists being arrested and should join international efforts to seek their release.
