TRANSCRIPT
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he has made Australia's strong objections clear to China, over an incident in which navy personnel were injured by sonar pulses from a Chinese ship.
Mr Albanese has faced criticism from Opposition and crossbench politicians for not revealing details of the incident until after he met President Xi Jinping at the APEC summit.
The Prime Minister has told Sky News there was no bilateral meeting at APEC in which the two leaders discussed the incident.
However he says he made it clear through other channels that Australia objected to what he described as dangerous behaviour, saying the event should not have occurred.
Opposition Defence Minister Andrew Hastie criticised the delay.
"I think it is very troubling that the Albanese Government only announced the details of this malicious act against our navy divers, after the PM had left the APEC summit. And that is where he boasted of a long conversation with President Xi and Wang Yi, and so it's unacceptable that he didn't raise it with those two leaders, he should have petitioned them and asked for an apology."
On the 14th of October, the Australian Naval ship HMAS Toowoomba was passing through waters inside of Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone - when the boats propeller was entangled in a fishing net.
Several Australian naval divers were then sent down to disentangle the propeller.
Officers on the Australian ship then sent out communications to a nearby Peoples Liberation Army Naval Destroyer - requesting the ship keep clear while the diving operation was underway.
Despite these warnings, the Chinese ship continued approaching.
Mounted on the Chinese ship’s hull was a sonar, a navigational device blasting sound waves through the water - powerful enough to cause hearing damage and disorientation.
An Australian Naval diver sustained minor injuries in the incident.
Mr Albanese is now facing questions about why the news of the incident failed to break until the day after his second meeting with President Xi at the APEC Summit.
The Prime Minister spoke to Sky News about the incident.
"Well, what I said when I was in China is that we will cooperate where we can, but disagree where we must. And this is one of those times where we disagree with the action of China. We've made it clear that we disagree with what occurred, that we have the strongest possible objection, and that this sort of event should not occur. The frigate involved clearly had out a sign that there were divers below. They were freeing up a fishing net from the equipment that was required under the water. And they should have been allowed to undertake this normal activity without this sort of intervention from the Chinese."
When asked about criticism of the government's response, Mr Albanese says he raised his concerns with the Chinese government in an appropriate way.
"Well, we've raised it very clearly through all of the normal channels. We had, when I was in San Francisco, there was no bilateral meeting with President Xi where you give a readout of what the events occurred. I don't talk about private meetings on the sidelines, discussions I have with any world leader. That's how you keep communications open. But I can assure you that we raised these issues in the appropriate way and very clearly, unequivocally. And China, there's no misunderstanding as to Australia's view on this."
Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley took to social media, stating the government's response was weak and accusing the Prime Minister of prioritising a photo opportunity rather than speaking up for Australians.
Mr Albanese says the government needs to work through smaller incidents like this, instead of allowing them to escalate - which he says would risk dire consequences for Australia's national interests.
Former Prime Minister and Australian ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, told ABC Radio that the criticism of Anthony Albanese is distracting from what happened.
"I am not in a position to comment on the content of a Prime Ministerial level discussion with the Chinese President, or with any other of the frankly dozen or so heads of government with whom the Prime Minister spoke while he was here at the APEC summit. To be frank, by any measure this is a complete distraction from the essential question which is; China, through its actions, through the PLA Navy, engaged in unsafe practices against the Royal Australian Navy. The Australian Government did not just respond privately and through diplomatic channels, the Australian Government went public through the acting Prime Minister Richard Marles and made our position equally clear publicly."
