Liberal MP Craig Kelly says “if we are serious" about closing China's wet markets, Australia should focus on providing the Chinese people with a greater source of beef and lamb to prevent them looking elsewhere for sources of protein.

Mr Kelly told Outsiders host Rowan Dean the World Health Organisation has thrown its support behind the wet markets despite climate change activists urging people to reduce their meat consumption for the sake of climate change.

“If you make it harder for people in these countries to eat lamb and to eat beef, they will look for other sources of protein which includes bats,” he said.

“If we are serious in closing these wet markets down, we’ve got to make sure these people have base-load technology, that they can have a refrigeration system all through the supply chain and then they can actually go on and eat more beef, we can export them more beef, export them more lamb.

“But that is the exact opposite of what these climate change luvvies want us to do."

Mr Kelly said “we see through this COVID-19 crisis how China is playing us for mugs”.

“Every single step that is taken by these climate change luvvies and alarmists gives a competitive advantage to China and plays into China’s hands,” he said.

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