ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
The Prime Minister has told reporters today he was completely blind-sided by China’s decision to cut all diplomatic ties with Australia today and maintains the door is always open for them to come back.
“Bloody hell,” Scott Morrison told reporters in Queensland today.
“Didn’t see that one coming,”
“Wonder why they’ve gone and bloody done this? Anyway, our phone is never off the hook so when Beijing is ready to restart a dialogue, we’ll be ready to talk,”
“But yeah, bit weird. I thought we were going through a good patch with the Chinese?”
In response to China slamming the door on Scott Morrison and his government, Trade Minister Simon B Birmingham is launching an inquiry into the developments.
Mr Birmingham told The Advocate via telephone this afternoon that this doesn’t necessarily mean all trade will cease between the two countries, it just means they don’t want to speak to the government any more.
“This will not affect business too much,” he said.
“Australians and Chinese on a day-to-day level will probably still continue trading unencumbered. It’s just Xi Jinping has just had enough of speaking to Scott for a while,”
“But aside from that, we need to work out why this has happened. There was no warning, nothing. They just cut off all contact for no reason. Which concerns me.”
More to come.
