BOB CARR: Absolutely. You take what he said on China, this adversarial tone towards China, and you take what he said about Indonesia, sending the boats back, which would be guaranteed in his first week as prime minister, if he's elected, to produce a crisis in our relations with our nearest, most important neighbour, and you take what he said about the anglosphere.

Now taken together, taken together this would send a message to the world under an Abbott Government that somehow Australia was retreating to its old certainties of the 1950s. Talking about the anglosphere is sending a message that - forget Africa, forget the Caribbean, forget above all Asia; Australia's more comfortable with its old friends: New Zealand, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

I mean, that's - there's nothing wrong with the excellent relations we've got with those countries. I value them. But for Tony Abbott to start talking that language, combined with what he's going to do on Indonesia and the adversarial approach towards China, sends a shocking message of retreat about Australia that we're now seeking security from Asia, that we're going back to a view so dated of Australia's role, it's more conservative than John Howard's.

Australain FM Blasts Opposition's Adversarial Comments On China