Scott Morrison says he ran out of time to impose sanctions on China over human rights

Australia's former PM urges new government to apply sanctions amid questions why he stopped short of taking such action when in power

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The former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has defended his failure to introduce sanctions against Chinese officials over human rights abuses, saying he ran out of time before his election loss.

His comments to a conference in Tokyo on Friday prompted the Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, to declare: I'm not sure how much advice it would be sensible to take from Mr Morrison on foreign policy."

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