Anthony Albanese, Australia’s opposition leader, said the government must respond to Beijing in a firm but diplomatic manner, toughening his stance on China ahead of the 2022 elections. In an interview, Albanese, the head of the center-left Labor Party, stated that the Chinese government’s “position in the region” had changed in recent years and was to blame for the deteriorating relationship with Australia.
“It’s a challenging connection, but it’s critical.” Hundreds of thousands of people have been lifted out of poverty thanks to China. But they also deserve to be called out for their human rights violations,” he was quoted in the newspaper as adding.
Albanese said that a future Labor government will cooperate with Australia’s Indo-Pacific allies as well as the Biden administration to keep the area stable and secure.
Australia will hold an election before the end of May. Despite Labor’s advantage in public opinion polls in Australia so far, Albanese is less popular than the Liberal-National coalition’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
In the past, the Labor leader has criticised the Australian government’s management of the Sino-Australian relationship, saying that resolving the two countries’ differences required “more strategy and less politics.”
Anthony Albanese, the Centre-Left Labour Party leader, had said last week that his party would set a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the country by 43% by the end of this decade, if the people of the country will vote for his party to form a government next year.
