At a closed party room meeting in Canberra early last month, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed to his fellow Liberal-National coalition MPs his plan for how to win the coming election, saying he wanted to paint the Labor opposition party as a "risk" and highlight differences between the parties on national security.

Mr Morrison then proceeded to launch a series of vocal - and somewhat overblown - attacks on the Labor leader, Mr Anthony Albanese. He claimed that Mr Albanese would appease China and that the Chinese Communist Party wanted Labor to win the election, due to be held in May. Mr Albanese, he said, was the "most left-wing leaning" Labor leader in 50 years.