In a conversation with reporters after a Labor Party election campaign launch on May 5, former prime minister Paul Keating called Australia’s security agencies “nutters” and said that the appropriate action should be to “clean them out.” He also said that “China is a great state.” The comments were in response to follow up questions related to improving Australia’s relationship with China.
Keating’s comments triggered a wave of condemnation with some voices speaking in defense of Australia’s security agencies, and others raising their concerns over the Chinese regime’s efforts to influence Australia—a topic widely reported about in Australian media in recent years.
