Former Resources Minister Matt Canavan says Australia needs to move away from China and not be so economically dependent on a single country.

Businessman Andrew Forrest has come under fire after he invited a Chinese diplomat to speak at a federal government press conference.

It comes amid the most serious rift between Australia and China in decades over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Canavan told Alan Jones there needs to be a change in Australia’s reliance on China.

“This pandemic has clarified a lot of real things for all of us … we must reduce our dependence on just one country.

“A whole lot of other rubbish we were talking about three months ago is not so important anymore.

“I mean who cares how many genders there are or what a 16-year-old German school child thinks about climate change, there’s much more important things to focus on.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview