The Liberal Party is set to raise the temperature in the fight over the China Free Trade Agreement, with attack ads that accuse "ratbag unions" of stoking racism against the Chinese.
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The TV campaign is due to be released later this month, but a leaked copy of a script, obtained by Fairfax Media, shows the Liberals will pull no punches in attempting to counter the expensive anti-FTA campaign sponsored by the CFMEU and other unions.
The ads, paid for by the Victorian branch of the Liberals, will complement a $9 million government campaign promoting the deal. Trade Minister Andrew Robb has handed nearly $7 million to media buyers to place publicly-funded ads on TV and in print.
The leaked script shows the Liberal Party's ads begin in a "suburban living room" with a 20-year-old Australian man on the couch with his arm around his Chinese girlfriend.
The couple are watching the union attack ads on TV with the man's parents.
Father: They're at it again
Son: Who?
Father: A ratbag union in the building industry is running racist TV ads against the Chinese. Last year Bill Shorten was attacking the Japanese
Girlfriend: I thought Australia wasn't like that?
Mother: Most Australians aren't, love
Father: But some unions have been running racist campaigns for years
Son: Why doesn't someone stop them?
Father: Bill Shorten should stop them.
The leaked script says the ads end with the slogan "Free trade is good for Australian jobs".
Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger told Fairfax Media that the ads had been designed to address an "undercurrent of racism" in the union campaign, which claims Australian jobs will be threatened by the FTA.
"We ask the question of whether this a racist attack on the Chinese. We ask that question," he said.
In response, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten accused the Liberals of taking the "low road".
"These kind of pathetic insults prove the Liberals are losing the economic argument," he said.
Mr Shorten also took aim at the government unleashing a taxpayer-funded campaign before the enabling legislation to progress the China FTA had passed parliament.
"Malcolm Turnbull and Andrew Robb are spending taxpayers' money to sell an agreement that fails to safeguard Australian jobs. Australians don't want more taxpayer-funded advertising, they want safeguards for Australian jobs," he said.
