Penny Wong’s London speech about UK’s colonial history caused no ‘diplomatic tension’

The Australian foreign affairs minister’s speech in London about Britain’s colonial history caused “no sense of discomfort or diplomatic tension” with the UK, a senior official has declared.

The Coalition opposition used a committee hearing in Canberra on Thursday to suggest that Penny Wong’s remarks caused an unnecessary “distraction” during annual high-level talks between Australia and the UK.

During a wide-ranging speech in London two weeks ago, Wong welcomed the UK’s “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific region but also reflected on different experiences of British colonisation.

Wong, who was born in Malaysia, said her father was descended from Hakka and Cantonese Chinese, and many from those clans “worked as domestic servants for British colonists, as did my own grandmother”.

Wong told an audience at King’s College London such stories “can sometimes feel uncomfortable” but it “gives us the opportunity to find more common ground than if we stayed sheltered in narrower versions of our countries’ histories”.

This aspect of the speech attracted media attention in the UK, with the Telegraph running a story under the headline: “‘Woke’ Australian diplomat tells UK to confront its colonial past.”

But Wong said on Thursday that at no point had she used the word “confront”. After the King’s College speech, Wong and the defence minister, Richard Marles, joined their counterparts James Cleverly and Ben Wallace for talks in Portsmouth.

The most senior official at Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Jan Adams, who attended the meetings, said the colonialism comments were “not the mainstay of the discussions both formally and informally”.

“We spent a lot of time together. Frankly it was, in the context of modern Britain, an unexceptional comment,” Adams told a Senate estimates committee.

“There was no sense of discomfort or diplomatic tension whatsoever. I can say that with complete confidence.”

Wong said she had been seeking to make the point that “if we recognise our history and we recognise how we have changed, we find more common ground” with other countries in the Indo-Pacific.

She said such an approach also helped to “deal with some of the ways in which others seek to constrain us”. Chinese diplomats have sought to portray the Aukus security deal among Australia, the US and the UK as an “Anglo-Saxon clique”.

Wong mentioned that Australia was seeking to “challenge disinformation” and projecting Australia’s modern multicultural image was about increasing Australia’s influence and power in the region.

She said such a message was important “in the context of Aukus and the Quad” partnership with India, Japan and the US.

The opposition’s Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, who led the questioning, also mentioned “the importance of balance” and taking care with “how you put your messages”.

He asked whether there were positive aspects of “the UK’s historical contribution around systems of democracy, systems of justice”.

Wong answered: “Of course there are.”

Asked about comments by News Corp’s Greg Sheridan that this was the “worst and strangest speech of Penny Wong’s life”, the minister said she had “a lot of regard” for the author but would “tell him to relax”.

“I maintain my view that working on how we maximise Australian influence, including in how we speak about who we are and recognise where others are, is a central part of the job of anyone in this role.”

Speaking at a post-meeting press conference in Portsmouth two weeks ago, Cleverly confirmed the talks did address “the nature of the relationship between the UK and other countries which are now in the Commonwealth but which were previously British colonies”.

But Cleverly said these were “not the mainstay of the conversations”.

In a separate interview with Australia’s Nine newspapers shortly after the speech, Cleverly was asked whether the UK had satisfactorily confronted its colonial past.

“You’re asking the black foreign secretary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain?” Cleverly replied. “Yeah, I think the answer is yes – you’re looking at it, you’re talking to it!

“I mean, the bottom line is we have a prime minister of Asian heritage, you have a home secretary of Asian heritage, you have a foreign secretary of African heritage.”

Cleverly said history mattered but “what matters more is the stuff we can do in the future”.

Australia is finalising the details of its plans to acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with help from the UK and the US.

Leaders of the three Aukus countries – Anthony Albanese, Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden – are expected to make an announcement next month.