Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor has dismissed claims the government is mismanaging Australia’s relationship with China.

Fears of a trade war are brewing as China goes on the defensive over Australia’s calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.

Shadow Minister for Agriculture Joel Fitzgibbon argues the federal government should be able to balance trade with the need for an inquiry.

“A good government can both maintain our good trading relationship with our biggest trading partner and, at the same time, defend robustly our national interest.

“Our trading interests are our national interests.

“The relationship between Australia and China has been mismanaged.”

But Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor says, “that’s just rot, it’s absolute rot.”

“What Joel’s basically saying is we should hide when saying we want an inquiry. It’s ridiculous.

“We’re not gonna trade away our values. We’ve got to do the right thing by the Australian people.”

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