The feud between two of Labor’s most beloved figures has escalated, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong accusing Paul Keating of diminishing his legacy and the former prime minister attacking Wong for speaking in platitudes and lacking policy ambition.
, saying: “Running around the Pacific Islands with a lei around your neck handing out money, which is what Penny does, is not foreign policy. It’s a consular task. Foreign policy is what you do with the great powers: what you do with China, what you do with the United States.”
In her speech, Wong said a war fought over the self-governing island of Taiwan would be “catastrophic” for everyone involved, arguing it is “our job is to lower the heat on any potential conflict, increasing pressure on others to do the same”. Wong said she felt it important to deliver a “reality check” that nations in the Indo-Pacific would not have enjoyed their “long, uninterrupted period of stability and prosperity” without the US.
“Many who take self-satisfied potshots at America’s imperfections would find the world a lot less satisfactory if America ceased to play its role.” Keating said Wong had claimed to eschew “black and white binary choices” but “then proceeded to make a choice herself – extolling the virtues of the United States, of it remaining ‘the central power’ – of ‘balancing the region’, while disparaging China”.
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