MPs and senators should receive foreign affairs and national intelligence briefings about China to remedy the government’s failure to discuss Australia’s relationship with the emerging superpower, Penny Wong has suggested.

Labor’s shadow foreign affairs spokeswoman made the call on Sunday, citing the growing number of Coalition backbenchers raising concerns about China and free speech at Australian universities as evidence the government has failed to lead the conversation.

Last week the Liberal chair of the intelligence and security committee, Andrew Hastie, warned the belief that China will liberalise leaves the West as vulnerable as France was to Nazi Germany. The comments were widely criticised for their inflammatory tone – but not for the substance of his warning that Australia should not compromise its sovereignty for the sake of its trading partnership with China.

On Sunday the Liberal backbenchers Amanda Stoker, Tim Wilson, Dave Sharma and James Paterson warned that Australian universities must protect free speech to prevent the silencing of non-Chinese Communist Party-aligned international students, after heated campus protests about the handling of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Police warning after pro-Hong Kong rally in Melbourne turns violent Read more

Wong told Insiders “it’s time for the prime minister [Scott Morrison] and the foreign minister [Marise Payne] to lead a calm and mature discussion on China”.

“We have backbenchers out there making a whole range of comments – I think it would be far better at a time where it’s a complex relationship and getting more so that we have a mature, sensible and calm discussion about our relationship with China and how we make it work for us – and that should be led by the government.

“It shouldn’t be led by backbenchers – and the fact backbenchers are feeling the need to lead it, is I think, a demonstration of the failure of the government to do so,” she said, citing Hastie’s comments about the “intellectual failure” of the discussion.

Wong said she would write to Payne and request that parliamentarians receive briefings on China from the department of foreign affairs and the office of national intelligence “because we are at a point where the relationship is much more complex, [and] more consequential”.

Wong said the debate would be “more informed” than current comments designed to fill the “leadership vacuum”. Wong said some of Hastie’s comments were valid, others were “inflammatory”, but he should not be the one to frame the discussion.

Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman said Australia should “always stand for who we are … protect our sovereignty, and assert our values and the strength of our democracy”.

Despite Australia’s strong trading partnership with China, the relationship has been inflamed by the dispute over the South China Sea, perceptions Australia’s foreign interference package was targeted at China, the escalating trade war between China and the US, and protests about the situation in Hong Kong.

On Saturday a second pro-Hong Kong rally was held in Melbourne’s CBD after clashes with Chinese nationalists on Friday night sparked a police warning that violence would not be tolerated.

On Sunday Stoker told the Sun Herald universities were battling through a “crisis of leadership” on foreign influence, with administrators reluctant “to defend the rights of non-CCP aligned students who dare to speak out against Beijing”.

Paterson reportedly said campus protests shone a spotlight on the foreign influence risks at Australian universities “both as a by-product of the hunger for international students and more deliberate efforts at influence”.

Wong also continued Labor’s critique that the government’s record of rising emissions and attempts to use Kyoto carryover credits left it with little credibility discussing climate change, arguing that Scott Morrison had diminished Australia’s influence at the Pacific Islands Forum where it was roundly criticised by Pacific leaders. China will “continue to expand its influence” as a result, she warned.

Wong confirmed that “of course” Labor would also have rejected attempts at the PIF to phase out the coal export industry, describing it as an “important industry” and noting coal “remains part of the global energy mix”.