As China-Australia ties fray, who is shaping Canberra’s increasingly hawkish policy on Beijing?

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his cabinet rely on a roster of key advisers and appointees known for their focus on national security and tough China stance

These include the nation’s top spy, Andrew Shearer; Nick Warner, a former diplomat and intelligence operative; and former national security adviser Justin Bassi

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The Australian and Chinese flags. Photo: Shutterstock

John Power

Published: 5:00am, 6 Jun 2021Updated: 4:09pm, 6 Jun 2021

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has repeatedly said Australia’s national interests are the sole guide of his government’s policy on China. To help decide where those interests lie, Morrison and his cabinet have relied on a roster of key advisers and appointees – a coterie known for a strong focus on national security and hawkish views on Beijing.

The tough approach of Morrison’s inner circle has coincided with a serious deterioration in Sino-Australian relations. While they have been strained in recent years, ties have taken a sharp dive since Canberra last year called for an independent international inquiry into the origins of Covid-19, prompting Beijing to retaliate with billions of dollars of restrictions on Australian exports. In recent weeks, senior Australian government figures have invoked the spectre of war, including defence minister Peter Dutton, who in April said Australia could not rule out the possibility of a conflict with Beijing over Taipei.

Andrew Shearer, director general of Australia’s Office of National Intelligence. Photo: Handout

Key figures shaping Australia’s China policy include Andrew Shearer, Morrison’s former Cabinet secretary who now serves as the nation’s top spy as director general of the Office of National Intelligence (ONI); Nick Warner, a former diplomat and spy who now works as a consultant to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC); and Justin Bassi, chief of staff to foreign affairs minister Marise Payne and a former national security adviser to ex-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, Morrison’s immediate predecessor.

Shearer, a national security adviser to former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard, is known for publicly expressing concerns about Beijing’s strategic intentions years before such worries would become default thinking in Canberra.

In a 2010 analysis for the Lowy Institute think tank, Shearer warned that Australia’s reliance on China as its biggest trading partner made it “increasingly difficult to align our strategic policies with our economic interest”, and argued it was not “unreasonable for Australians to be cautious about the underlying motives of major Chinese investments in sectors of strategic importance to Australia”.

Canberra banned Chinese tech giant Huawei from Australia’s 5G network on national security grounds in 2018 – the same year it passed anti-foreign interference laws seen as mostly aimed at Beijing – and in April vetoed the state of Victoria’s agreement to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s global infrastructure development strategy. Australian officials are also currently considering whether to rip up a 99-year lease to the port of Darwin that was awarded to Chinese-owned Landbridge Group in 2015.