Abbott a business-focused partner

Australia has a new prime minister and China may have got a stronger business partner. The Liberal Party coalition won the country's federal elections last weekend and Tony Abbott will be sworn in as the country's prime minister in a few days.

The elections mostly revolved around the country's fatigue with the incumbent Labor Party's six years in office, its leadership fights and the larger than life personality of two-time Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

When issues pushed through the fog of campaign gaffe's and funny photographs, the economy was one of the few true policy issues that drew voters' attention. Foreign policy rarely entered the campaign, with Abbott reducing the Syrian crisis, which has gripped the world, to a soundbite calling it a "baddies versus baddies" issue, with no clear path for international support. In the process, the campaign seemed to ignore Australia's largest trading partner: China.

China invests more funds in Australia than in any other country. Yet when voters asked the candidates during televised debates about investment in Australian land and natural resources, both candidates more or less dodged the issue. In fact, most of the time China was mentioned, it was to blame Rudd's leadership for China's slowing demand for Australian coal rather than on economic slowdown in the country.

The limited discussion on China fits perfectly with the Liberal Party's limited engagement on foreign policy. The "foreign" policy that the Liberals most often discussed was the domestically and regionally controversial issue of asylum seekers.

On a rare visit to China last year, Abbott talked about strengthening bilateral economic relations and the benefits of freedom for the Chinese people. But those soundbites were more pro-forma statements than an outline of policy.

True policy signals on China have been left to Abbott's party deputy and soon to be foreign minister, Julie Bishop. During a foreign policy debate a month before the elections, Bishop said Australia's policy toward Asia, if the Liberals won the polls, would focus more on bilateral relations, and accord priority to economic and trade ties.