Tony Abbott: Like a Bull in a China Shop.

The real criticism of Abbott on this occasion is his lack of diplomatic subtlety. Still, he wasn’t as bad as (alleged China expert) Rudd going there and lecturing the Chinese, in Mandarin, about their human rights record. Visiting another country, particularly a major trading partner, is not the place for chest-beating self-righteousness.

His statement that “It would rarely be in Australia’s interests to allow a foreign government or its agencies to control an Australian business,” is clearly correct. Perhaps he could have made more of the distinction between control of businesses and passive investment in minority positions as a sovereign wealth fund with no off-take agreements and the like, which some Chinese entities do already.

In this bit:

“No big country is entitled to get its way with smaller countries just because it can,” he said. “Under a Coalition government, Australia will do what it can to ensure that territorial disputes in the South China Sea are managed peacefully in accordance with international law.”

there was no need to make the first statement. The appropriate place for that is in other forums dealing specifically with international law and disputes between nations.

The statement “That’s because we don’t support the nationalisation of businesses by the Australian government, let alone a foreign one” was spot on.

I’d give him 5 out of 10 for this effort overall and remind him that Australia can only exist with the support of major powers and just as we transitioned from the UK to the US, we are going to need to find a way to accommodate China and have friendly relations with it. That doesn’t mean ignoring China’s human rights abuses and aggressive regional foreign policy but it does mean using a more diplomatic approach when raising such issues.

First the video would be re-run:

“Tell them to cancel this meeting at six o’clock, I don’t have any f***ing patience to do this. The f***ing Chinese interpreter up there – oh just f***ing hopeless. Just give me simple sentences and I have said this before and tell that bloody interpreter this f***ng language he just complicates it so much, just f***ng hopeless, I f***ed up the last word.”

And then we would be reminded what Rudd’s ALP colleagues thought of him:

One thing the Labor party has got to learn is that it doesn’t solve its polling problems by simply changing the leader,”

“He can’t be prime minister again. He’s got to accept that. Has he? That’s a question that should be put to him and I think every time it’s been put to him he does accept it.

“People will not elect as leaders those they don’t perceive as team players I think that part of the reason he lost the leadership is because he wasn’t [a team player]. There’s no point having a band of prima donnas unless they operate as a team.”

“However for too long, Kevin Rudd has been putting his own self-interest ahead of the interests of the broader labour movement and the country as a whole, and that needs to stop.

The Party has given Kevin Rudd all the opportunities in the world and he wasted them with his dysfunctional decision making and his deeply demeaning attitude towards other people including our caucus colleagues.

He sought to tear down the 2010 campaign, deliberately risking an Abbott Prime Ministership, and now he undermines the Government at every turn.

He was the Party’s biggest beneficiary then its biggest critic; but never a loyal or selfless example of its values and objectives.

For the interests of the labour movement and of working people, there is too much at stake in our economy and in the political debate for the interests of the labour movement and working people to be damaged by somebody who does not hold any Labor values.”

“The Labor Party is not about a person, it’s about a purpose. That’s something Prime Minister Gillard has always known in her heart but something Kevin Rudd has never understood.”

“I did witness quite a lot of very bad behaviour to staff and officials,”

“’If Kevin succeeds I won’t want to serve in his ministry”

“Only a psychopath with a giant ego would line up again after being comprehensively rejected by the overwhelming majority of colleagues,”

“[Rudd had] contempt for the cabinet, contempt for cabinet members, contempt for the caucus, contempt for the parliament. And ultimately what brought him down a year or two ago was the Australian public realised he had contempt for them as well,”

“We need to get out of this idea that Kevin is a messiah that will lead us to the next election. We need to lance this boil.”

“It became chaotic, the chaos, the undermining, the temperament that started to develop, the micro-management where no one other than the prime minister could make a decision. We came to office with so much hope from people, and people wanting to believe in us. And Kevin as leader became someone who through his complex became increasingly impossible to work with and as a government we simply weren’t delivering the way we should have been able to.”

“That destabilisation, that treachery has gone on now for varying degrees for the last 18 months.”

“He sees it all through the prism of Kevin. I think he’s going to milk it all for what it’s worth. Kevin thinks it’s all about the person but people elect parties.”

“The truth is, the Prime Minister Rudd is deeply flawed.

“He does have some very significant achievements … but he (also) has great weaknesses which, to date, have not necessarily been seen in public.”

”Kevin Rudd as prime minister always had very difficult and very chaotic work patterns. Having lived through the days of the Rudd government, it became absolutely clear to me that one of the overriding problems of the government that Kevin Rudd led is it was very, very focused on the next news cycle, on the next picture opportunity, rather than the long term reforms for the nation’s interests.”

”The 2010 election was sabotaged … we were in a winning position in that campaign until the sabotage that knocked that campaign very, very solidly.”

And then Labor could ask Australians to vote for that person?????

Looks like Carr is the dumb and dishonest one here:

Verballing the Opposition Leader? John Garnaut in The Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday:

MR Abbott positioned himself on the edge of one of the world’s most volatile military flashpoints by staking a role for Australia in protecting Southeast Asian nations from Chinese bullying.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr on ABC1’s Lateline on Wednesday:</b?

TONY Jones: You’ve also accused Tony Abbott of saying that Australia intends to take sides against China over issues in the South China Sea. I saw no evidence of that in his speech. Where did he say (that)? … Because this is what he actually said in the speech: “Under a Coalition government Australia will do what it can to ensure territorial disputes in the South China Sea are managed peacefully and in accordance with international law.” That sounds pretty similar to what you’re saying.

Carr: Yes, no, that’s what we’ve said and that’s what the Howard government has said. Look at John Garnaut’s article in The Herald where pretty explicitly he’s weighing in against the Chinese side

If you want to kick Abbott wait until he does something really really stupid – it won’t take long. Piling on and making shit up only makes you look like a frothing loon (which is the image Bob Carr seems to be assiduously working on since he joined the ministry).