Federal Labor has dubbed as clumsy a government attack on the Chinese aid program in Pacific island nations.
International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells hit out on Wednesday at China's assistance to tiny Pacific island nations for building "white elephant" projects and "roads to nowhere."
She also expressed concerns about the sustainability of China's loan arrangements with the island nations.
"Burdensome debt can divert scarce public resources from more important needs such as health and education," Senator Fierravanti-Wells told ABC Radio.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells questioned the viability of some projects.
"We don't want buildings in the Pacific that do not have some productive outcome that doesn't provide some sort of economic benefit," she said.
"We just don't want to build something for the heck of building it."
Labor's foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said lashing out at China every time the government is in trouble isn't a good way to deal with a relationship that is of very great economic importance to Australia.
"This is yet another indication of the Turnbull government's approach to foreign policy and that is its clumsiness," she told ABC TV.
The Lowy Insitute has estimated China has poured $2.3 billion in aid to the South Pacific since 2006.
