Solomons-China deal a 'money grab': MP

Queensland MP Phillip Thompson, who served in Afghanistan as a member of the Australian Defence Force, identified China as the greatest threat to Australia's national security.

While Australia and China should not engage in a bidding war with the Solomon Islands it was important to recognise China's financial influence in the region, the backbencher said.

"What we've seen with (China's) security pact in the Solomon Islands, it's a money grab from the Solomon Islands," Mr Thompson told Sky News on Monday. 

"(Australia has) always been there in support and helping the Pacific family. China comes in with a big bag of cash."

Both Defence Minister Peter Dutton and Labor's defence spokesman Brendan O'Connor have suggested China could have engaged in bribery to secure the deal. 

Mr O'Connor said it was clear China does not follow the same rules as other countries on some occasions. 

"It may well be the case that they've acted in an improper manner in terms of convincing the Solomon Islands to enter into such an arrangement," Mr O'Connor told ABC Radio National. 

But he added the Liberal-National coalition had failed to maintain a good relationship with the Solomon Islands.

"(Australia) should have been doing more," he said. 

"The current foreign minister should have visited the Solomon Islands, we believe there should have been more engagement and we should not have cut foreign aid to the region the way we have over the last almost decade." 

Mr Dutton said he wanted Australia to have a better relationship with China, but reiterated his assertion it was the Chinese government who had changed the narrative.

"The Chinese operate by very different rules and they do it here, they do it in Africa, they do it in other parts of the world," he told the Nine Network.

"We want a normalised relationship with China as quickly as possible, but these acts of aggression we're seeing at the moment aren't acceptable to our country or to countries that stand for what we stand for."