Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastMarles says government’s position on Taiwan is ‘clear’Richard Marles was also asked about criticism from the Coalition about the government’s stance on Taiwan, after the shadow defence minister, Angus Taylor, said this week Australia should be prepared to make “principled commitments” to its security and be prepared “to act” if needed.We do not support any unilateral changes to the status quo across the Taiwan Strait. Now, that’s been the very clear and simple position of this government since we came to power, but to be honest, it’s been the position, the bipartisan position, of Coalition and Labor governments now for a long period of time …This government is going to maintain what has been the position of the Australian government for a very long period of time, and that is to maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.The prime minister made clear that he raised Dr Yang’s case in his meeting with President Xi. It’s important that we have consistency in terms of continuing to raise this case, but it’s also important that we are prudent in the way in which we talk about this and what we want to see, obviously, is an outcome in terms of this consular case.These matters are delicate, but you can look at what the government has done over the last few years in terms of how we have been able to manage other consular cases