Peter Dutton says he ‘very strongly’ believes Chinese Communist party wants Coalition to lose election

In election debate, Labor's Brendan O'Connor says defence minister's line of attack on China is for his own political purposes

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Australia's defence minister declared he has no doubt" the Chinese Communist party wants the Morrison government to lose the election, prompting the opposition to denounce the appeasement claims as a conspiracy theory".

Peter Dutton was challenged during a debate on Thursday to defend the government's rhetoric that a Labor government would appease" the CCP - after previous pushback from current and former national security officials - and said he believed it very strongly".