Dan Andrews: Jacqui Lambie blasts ex-Victorian premier for attending Chinese military parade

Crossbencher Jacqui Lambie has questioned if Dan Andrews damaged “his head” when he famously fell down stairs at his holiday home four years ago as the former Victorian premier weathers a firestorm for attending a mega military parade in China.

Mr Andrews, who once house-shared with Anthony Albanese, was filmed shaking hands with Xi Jinping and even posed for photos with some of the world’s most ruthless autocrats, including North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.

“Why would you go and put yourself in that sort of a situation when you’ve been a premier, I just don’t understand,” Senator Lambie told Sky News on Thursday.

“It’s just stupidity.”

She went on to say Home Affairs should go “through him with a fine-tooth comb”.

“I have to ask, when he fell down the stairs, not only did he damage his back, did he actually do something to his head?” she quipped.

Former NSW premier Bob Carr also travelled to Beijing for commemorations.

Unlike Mr Andrews, Mr Carr – also a former foreign minister – did not attend the parade in Tiananmen Square but did take tea with diplomats and Chinese officials at an event marking the anniversary.

While Labor has kept quiet on the pair’s China jaunt, the Coalition has unleashed, with Liberal senator Jane Hume saying it “shows a lack of judgment”.

“It was clearly a sign of military might, a display of military might quite threatening in its intentions. And there he was, standing alongside some of the most unsavoury characters from right around the world,” the Victorian senator told Channel 9.

“If he had diplomatic support, I think that that would be an issue.

“Whether he went there as a private citizen or not, I just think that shows a lack of judgment.”

Meanwhile, Sussan Ley called on Anthony Albanese to show some “moral clarity” and “call out” his former housemate.

“I know that the Prime Minister and Daniel Andrews have been close,” she told Sky.

“They worked together on a strategy leading into the election campaign.

“Old flatmates stick together.”

The Opposition Leader said Mr Albanese “needs to demonstrate some moral clarity here and actually call out Daniel Andrews for being just a few feet away from dictators and despots at a Chinese parade that the Chinese Communist Party demonstrated its military strength.”

As private citizens, both Mr Andrews and Mr Carr were free to attend without Canberra’s sign-off and NewsWire understands the Albanese government was not consulted.

Fronting press on Wednesday, Mr Albanese was asked if he minded that Mr Andrews was in Beijing with the leaders of China, North Korea and Russia.

“He’s not meeting them,” he replied.

Australia’s ambassador to China, Scott Dewar, did not attend.

NewsWire understands the envoy was invited but declined.

It was somewhat of a snub, considering Australia sent a minister to the last major anniversary parade a decade ago.

The Australian Embassy’s defence attaché and political counsellor went in his place.

Speaking to ABC radio on Thursday, Mr Carr revealed he pulled out of the parade once he learnt the “nature” of it.

“The consul general in April might have mentioned that there was going to be a parade, but the nature of the parade didn’t become clear,” he said.

“When it did, I let the Chinese ambassador know that I would not attend it.”

He said he was “not interested in a Soviet-era military parade”.

While the pomp and ceremony of Wednesday could have gone toe-to-toe with Red Square Victory Day parades at the height of the Cold War, there was nothing Soviet about the military hardware on display.

The show of might was undeniable – thousands of soldiers marching perfectly in sync under the hot sun as state-of-the-art warplanes, tanks and missile systems rolled through central Beijing.

Present too was China’s Dongfeng-5 missile.

It is a liquid-fuelled intercontinental strategic nuclear missile capable of striking the US and exactly the kind of firepower Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles referred to earlier this year when he said China’s nuclear build-up was driving “security anxiety” in Australia.