“We need to be prepared for an invasion and right now we are not.”
New Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has called for Australia to arm itself with missiles and double the defence budget against a possible invasion by an "anti-democratic force".
The comments were made on Tuesday, with Ms Lambie calling for Australia to double its defence budget to $60 billion dollars.
Ms Lambie, who is also a former Australian Army soldier, told Sydney's 2GB radio station that the Labor and Liberal-National governments had failed to adequately protect Australia from threats like China.
"To stop our grandchildren, realistically, if we were to be invaded, to stop us from becoming slaves to an aggressive or anti-democratic foreign power," said Ms Lambie.
She said "the Chinese Communist government" posed a threat to Australia and that it could not rely on traditional allies like the US to protect it from an invasion.
"We certainly need to look into missiles. We need anti-missile defence systems as well and we don't have both here," she said.
Stefan Postles / Getty Images
The Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer launched a sensational attack on national television Monday night, calling the Chinese government "bastards" and "mongrels".
The billionaire mining magnate, whose party holds the balance of power in the Senate, is currently engaged in a long-running legal dispute with a Chinese-state owned company.
"I'm saying that because they're Communist, they shoot their own people, they haven't got a justice system and they want to take over this country. And we're not going to let them," he said.
Late on Tuesday, the Chinese Embassy labelled the comments "absurd" and "irresponsible".
"We believe that a sound China-Australian relationship serves the fundamental interests of both countries. It is and will always be supported by the two peoples," a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy told the ABC.
Ms Lambie smaintained China was not preparing for an invasion, but said, "We need to be prepared for an invasion and right now that we are not."
