Charles Croucher: Australian correspondent on Prime Minister Albanese's meeting with Xi Jinping

Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping have met in Beijing, kicking off high-level talks as Australia and China strive to focus on economic co-operation rather than their increasingly militaristic regional rivalry.

With the Australian and Chinese national flags adorning the walls, it was a welcome befitting the charm offensive waged on the Australian Prime Minister since landing over the weekend.

Australian correspondent Charles Croucher unpacked the pair's meeting further.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International Correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance Peace of Mind
for New Zealand Business twenty three to five. Charles Kratz,
a ten or nine chief political editor with US Sound
of Australia. Child's good afternoon, Good afternoon. So what's on
the agenda apart from the port of Darwin potentially between
with this meeting between elbow and sheep.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, less fun than the British teachers dance party on
a Friday afternoon. But this meeting has just taken place
in the Great Hall of the People. Know your own
Prime Minister was there recently, so you've been through the process. Look,
this is about still stabilizing the relationship up some pretty
rocky years in the fallout of COVID and inquiry that
Australia laden and the Morrison government effectively falling out entirely

(00:42):
with Jijinping. The President of China has said he wants
to push the relationship further, wants to see more come
from a free trade agreement that's been ten years in
place now. The Prime Minister has reiterated his fondness and
Australia's prepents need a free trade as well. So that
is in a way China is sort of proving themselves

(01:05):
or trying to sort of show their bona fides when
it comes to free trade and being a better partner
than America. Because at the same time where he's sort
of going through this struggle as the rest of the
world is with the US tariffs and what's going on there.
So we are in a very strange situation where Australia
and I dare say New Zealand are looking at increasing
trade with communist China at the same time as increasing

(01:28):
tariffs with capitalist America. But that is the world that
we're all caught in the middle of right now.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Now, that upside down world that we're all living in. Hey,
what's happening with the former opposition leader. They're accused of
domestic abuse by a partner.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, Mike Latham is an odd character to say the least.
He stood against John Howard in the two thousand and
four election was pretty resoundingly beaten. People may remember the
famous handshake that said to lost him the election of
his aggressive nature. Now a former part someone who was
in what we're told is a situationship with Mark Latham.

(02:04):
I don't want to go too much into what that
is but has accused him of some pretty heenous things,
including some coercion and other sort of things that aren't
appropriate to be saying in any form, but certainly not
on the radio this hour that afternoon. He has denied it.
In a post on X he says, as the old

(02:25):
saying goes, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Now this will be dug into deeper. He has in
the past had incidents involving cab drivers and a whole
lot of other things. He has been kicked out of
almost every political party doing the rounds. He is now
an independent, still sits in one of the state upper
houses and still has some power there. So this will

(02:46):
be dug into, no doubt by assume the police, but
potentially also parliamentary inquiries. Again, he denies any of the accusations.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Right, did he actually write on next, hell has no
fury like a woman scorned?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah? I think so. Goodness, think I read that somewhere now,
Goodness it was, Yeah, it was. It's out there. He
called it comical, some of the suggestions, and look, if
they're not true, they are comical, but we will see.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Hey, the RBA wants to ban credit card surcharge just
sounds like a good idea.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Will it happen? So a great idea. Look, the RBA
has said this, given it's a cost of living crisis
almost everywhere. The problem is going to be if the
actual retailers have to pay for the machines and for
the setup. Now it's clear that some have been taking
the mickey with this and charging sort of three percent
or even one a half or two percent on big

(03:41):
purchases that attract then a big surcharge. What the RBA
is saying that is, in many cases it is now
cheaper for a retailer and for the banks to use
f pos or credit cards or even debit cards, then
it is to use cash. The cost of storing and
securing a transporting cash is increasing, so for some sales

(04:04):
it's actually cheaper to the outlet themselves to use credit cards,
and yet they still charge consumers for the right to
use it. So this is what the RBA is saying.
They think it would be a boost the economy but
also better reflect or the costs at the point of sales.
There's reviews going on. It's going to report back with
the recommendations by the end of the year. The RBA

(04:25):
doesn't have the power to enforce that, but the government
does and they'll listen. And that'd be a very popular
decision given just how much everyone is slugged because of
these search charges that often you either don't know are happening,
or more to the point, you can't really fight.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, good point too, Charles. Thank you for that, Charles Croucher, tenormind,
chief political Entity.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
For more from Hither Duplessy, Alan Drive, listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.