Paul Keating has again accused the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age of misleading the public with their \u201cirresponsible prediction\u201d three years ago of a Chinese attack on Australia.<\/p>\n
The former prime minister took the opportunity of the third anniversary of Nine newspapers\u2019 Red Alert series<\/a> to repeat his disdain for the reporting <\/a>and its primary author, international editor Peter Hartcher.<\/p>\n On 7 March 2023, the SMH and the Age published an alarming front page warning about the threat of \u201cwar with China<\/a> within three years\u201d by a panel of five national security experts.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe overwhelming source of danger to Australia is from China,\u201d the report said. \u201cThe nature of the threat extends to the prospect of a full-scale war \u2013 and Australia would have to be involved.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the official Canberra guidance on timing is that Australia will have less than 10 years\u2019 warning of war, the five experts think that this timeline is misleading. We need to be ready to fight in just three years, they found. Their review is titled accordingly: Red Alert.\u201d<\/p>\n In a strongly worded statement released on Friday, on the eve of that three-year mark, Keating said: \u201cNone of the claims have materialised.\u201d<\/p>\n Keating went on to label Hartcher \u201cmaladroit\u201d, adding to the list of insults<\/a> he threw at the journalist at the time of the original publication, which included \u201cpsychopath\u201d and \u201cold acid drop\u201d.<\/p>\n Hartcher responded in part to the former prime minister\u2019s criticism in an opinion piece in 2024, which argued Keating was \u201cAustralia\u2019s foremost apologist for the Chinese Communist Party\u201d and accused him of \u201cbloody-mindedness in retirement\u201d and an \u201cautocratic tendency\u201d.<\/p>\n The Red Alert series was widely criticised as hysterical and hyperbolic by others, including Paul Barry on Media Watch<\/a>.<\/p>\n