"Penny Wong refused to shake hands

with Simon Birmingham" I was told.
I thought it was unlikely - until I saw the footage for myself. Here was the woman who is likely to be the next Foreign Minister very publicly refusing to shake hands with the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment.  Apparently she was upset because he did not like former Prime Minister Keating's criticisms of the intelligence services in this country. 
Birmingham was right not to like what the former Prime Minister said. The former Prime Minister should not have said what he said. You don't undermine the intelligence services and raise questions about the security of the country. It is a very dangerous thing to do. So why did Keating do it?
There are probably a number of reasons. One would be that he does not want to see the present government returned to office. As he is a member of the party of the present Opposition this is understandable - but not the way to go about it.
Another is that he has been appointed to the advisory council of the Chinese Development Bank. Naturally this means he is not going to do or say anything that might upset the CDB. He would also be supporting the Chinese onWeChat who are criticising the present  government,  indeed he is almost certainly helping them to undermine the standing of the present Downunder government in the eyes of the Chinese. (No, don't take my word for it - this is the view of academics who know about these things.) 
A third reason may well be that the policies of the present Opposition-about-to-be-government are alarming the security and intelligence services - and they should. 
This country is not "part of the Asian region". It is located adjacent to it but it is not, despite an influx of migrants from diverse Asian countries, an Asian country. Indeed Keating once rudely described the location as being at the "arse end of the world". 
Nothing is going to change the location and unless we introduce something like Sharia law and completely change the way we live then nothing is going to make us "Asian"...and I imagine that the indigenous residents of  the country might have something to say about that. They don't see themselves as Asian. If anything they are more closely aligned to the Pacific region.
But that doesn't stop the current Opposition from trying to do things like get us into ASEAN. Yes, it is a huge trading block. Yes, we do a lot of business with some countries in it.
And no, we don't have the same sort of values on things like human rights and democracy. 
Simon Birmingham is right and so are many academics. Penny Wong is wrong  to dismiss the concerns out of hand and, as foreign minister, she must not. 
Will she also refuse to shake hands with people when they annoy her and she is on the international stage?