Marise Payne and the inquiry into Covid

December 15, 2023

Broinowski referred to Marise Payne as Malcolm Turnbull’s Foreign Minister in the context of her call for an inquiry into the source of COVID. In fact, Payne was appointed by Turnbull as Defence Minister and later appointed as Foreign Minister by Scott Morrison, who is not mentioned in the article. It was under Morrison that she called for the inquiry. Broinowski also conjectures that the Chinese assumed she was put up to this by Trump following her visit to Washington, and then says it was “very likely so, since Australia’s exports to China suffered and America’s did not”. This appears counterintuitive - if the Chinese thought the US was behind the call, surely they would also have punished them as well. Another point which stirred my curiosity was that “Pine Gap is suspected of providing the IDF with data on Hamas rocket launch sites in the Gaza strip”. I have read this elsewhere, but I am curious to know who suspects this and on what grounds. I think this is something all Australians should know.

For more on this topic, P&I recommends:

https://declassifiedaus.org/2023/11/03/targeting-palestine/