A member of the Australian Parliament has supported the idea of establishing a China-Australia leadership dialogue in order to further strengthen the two countries' bilateral relations, particularly in trade.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Malcolm Turnbull said that Australia should take advantage of China's measures to tackle the impact of the global financial crisis, especially the 4 trillion Renminbi yuan stimulus package.

Turnbull said Australia, a top exporter of coal and ore to China, is in fact a big beneficiary of the infrastructure boom triggered by that package.

Having served as minister for environment and water resources under the John Howard government in 2007, Turnbull has also taken a keen interest in the issue of water shortage.

He told Xinhua that he has followed the issue of excessive exploitation of underground water in northern China for years.

"Of course, the Chinese government is tackling this issue in many ways, such as the South-North Water Carrier and desalination. But these measures are very expensive," Turnbull said.

According to Turnbull, the fundamental thing to bear in mind, for China and for Australia, is that water is potentially an existential issue.

As for the issue of investment from Chinese state-owned enterprises,Turnbull said investment from state-owned companies of any country stand in a different category to a private company.

While the investment by state-owned enterprises may have objectives other than commercial one, it is important that these factors will be taken into account when "Australian government makes its own decision".

On the issue of Chinese company Huawei being banned from providing equipment to Australian national broadband network, Turnbull said the decision by current government was made based on advice from security and intelligence services.

Turnbull promised that when the Opposition, of which he is a member, takes power, it will review the decision thoroughly and objectively.