'Bereft of policy': Paul Keating deepens Labor divide with second attack on Penny Wong

The former prime minister has escalated a brawl with his party over China and the Indo-Pacific.

Penny Wong says inflammatory rhetoric over Taiwan is a 'dangerous parlour game'. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch

KEY POINTS:

• Penny Wong has described inflammatory rhetoric on Taiwan as a 'dangerous parlour game'.
• The foreign minister also criticised former prime minister Paul Keating for dismissing Pacific partnerships.
• Senator Wong says there would be 'no winners' if conflict breaks out in the Indo-Pacific.

Former prime minister Paul Keating has launched his second attack on Foreign Minister Penny Wong in a month, claiming no Labor government has been so "bereft of policy or policy ambition" in foreign affairs.

The intervention widens a fissure between Mr Keating and his party over China in the Indo-Pacific, sparked by Labor's decision to deepen security ties with the US and Britain via the $368 billion AUKUS pact.

Speaking to the National Press Club on Monday, Senator Wong described politicians openly discussing potential war over Taiwan as taking part in a "dangerous parlour game" and warned conflict in the region would be "catastrophic for all".

Paul Keating has launched his second attack on Penny Wong in a month. Source: AAP / Bianca De Marchi

But she also criticised Mr Keating for dismissing the importance of Australia's neighbours during his own fiery press club appearance last month, when he claimed her performance amounted to "running around with a lei around [her neck] handing out money" in the Pacific.

"In tone and substance, he diminished both his legacy and the subject matter," Senator Wong said.

Within hours of her speech, the former prime minister accused Senator Wong of "having not a jot of an idea" about how to balance historical American power with growing Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.

"I never expected more than platitudes from Penny Wong’s press club speech and as it turned out, I was not disappointed," he said in a statement.

"The foreign minister was unable to nominate a single piece of strategic statecraft by Australia that would attempt a solution for both [the US and China] ... Nothing Penny Wong said today, on Australia’s behalf, adds one iota of substance to that urgent task."

The comments deepen a divide between Mr Keathing and his party. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch

Mr Keating warned Australia was now navigating a strategic divide "rapidly becoming every bit as rigid" as before the first World War, saying its priority must be encouraging Washington and Beijing to "find common cause".

Senator Wong rejected what she labelled a "black and white" binary between aligning with the US and China, but said Pacific countries did not want to "live in a closed, hierarchical region" dictated by a single power.

"Nothing too subtle about that. She means China and is happy to mean China," Mr Keating said.

"This is the person claiming she does not wish to make binary choices ... Never before has a Labor government been so bereft of policy or policy ambition."

Penny Wong says she wants to 'lower the heat' over Taiwan

Senator Wong visited China in December. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch

President Joe Biden has repeatedly signalled the US would intervene to defend Taiwan from any Chinese attack, appearing to abandon years of American strategic ambiguity and sparking fears Australia could be drawn into a conflict.

Chinese ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian last year warned Beijing was prepared to use "all necessary means" to unify Taiwan with China.

Senator Wong acknowledged Beijing was undertaking a massive military build-up in the region "with little transparency" about its intentions, warning the threat of miscalculation created "the most confronting circumstances in decades".

But she warned against politicians deliberately fanning inflammatory rhetoric on Taiwan, saying more temperate interventions "may not sell as many newspapers today, but it will help you to sell them for a lot longer".

"There is much discussion in media and political circles over timelines and scenarios when it comes to Taiwan. Anyone in a position like mine who feels an urge to add to that discussion should resist the temptation. It is the most dangerous of parlour games," she said.

“Let me be absolutely clear: a war over Taiwan would be catastrophic for all. We know that there would be no real winners."

Paul Keating says Wong is 'turning her back on reality'

Joe Biden has been more explicit over Taiwan than previous US presidents. Source: AAP / Sipa USA

Mr Keating, who has played down the military threat posed by China, lambasted that approach as "refusing to talk about the very power issue which threatens the region’s viability".

"She told us she will turn her back on reality, speaking only in terms of ‘lowering the heat’ and the ‘benefit from a strategic equilibrium’, without providing one clue, let alone a policy, as to how that might be achieved," he said.

"Never before has a Labor government been so bereft of policy or policy ambition."

Labor has attempted to reset Canberra's relationship with Beijing, which deteriorated under the former Coalition government, with Senator Wong in December becoming the first foreign minister to visit China in four years.

But its decision to sign on to the AUKUS pact in March angered Beijing, which accused the US, UK and Australia of accelerating an arms race in the Indo-Pacific.

Senator Wong has prioritised trips to the Pacific throughout Labor's first year in office, jetting to Fiji within days of its May election victory and visiting several other neighbours since.

She offered a thinly-veiled rebuke to Mr Keating, who last month dismissed her efforts by saying: “Foreign policy is what you do with the great powers".

"Australia's foreign policy, at its best, has never simply been what you do with the great powers. Countries like us need an international system that constrains power with rules," she said.

Senator Wong stressed that Australia's Pacific neighbours, many of which were invaded during WWII, remained central to that aim.

"Many countries in the Pacific have lived the reality of great power competition spiralling into catastrophic conflict when their own agency was sidelined, and their voices ignored," she said.

"Anyone who questions the strategic importance of [the] Pacific Islands to Australia's security need only acquire the briefest familiarity with history."