TRANSCRIPT
The Prime Minister is facing questions upon his return from a diplomatic trip to California.
They surround the details of a run-in with a Chinese warship that left several Australian naval divers injured on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Albanese is being asked about whether he raised the incident in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which the Prime Minister has described as "very successful".
The incident occurred inside of Japan's exclusive economic zones, when an Australian naval ship, the HMAS Toowoomba, encountered a People’s Liberation Army-Navy destroyer.
The divers were injured while attempting to untangle fishing nets from the propellers.
Despite messages asking nearby ships to steer clear of the divers, the Chinese warship came too close while operating a sonar device underwater, injuring the divers.
The Opposition questions why details of the incident were withheld for five days while the Prime Minister was meeting with President Xi.
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson raised the issue on ABC's Insiders program:
"I think when it comes to our very complex and important bilateral relationship with the People's Republic of China, that we really have to look at the actions of the Chinese Government, not just their words. It's pretty fundamental things like this, which was an active decision by the Peoples Liberation Army Navy, to put Australian navy personnel in harms way and cause harm to them, that we should be really judging the Chinese Government by."
Acting Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles has called the incident unsafe and unprofessional, while the Prime Minister is yet to address the matter.
Mr Paterson says the P-M would have known about the incident at the time of his meeting with Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
"We have to understand whether or not the Prime Minister raised this with Xi Jinping or Wang Yi when he met with them at APEC in San Francisco. He has boasted about the depth of conversations he had with them there. He would have known before he left Australia that this incident occurred."
Also at the summit, disputes over the South China Sea continued to raise concerns around further destabilisation and potential escalations.
Indonesia's Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto says the region should seek to avoid offensive competitions.
"The South China Sea, the Korean peninsula, the Myanmar issue, remain hotspots that can destabilise the region. Therefore, I encourage peaceful resolutions to every dispute and seek cooperation rather than this offensive competition.''
Another key element of the 2023 APEC forum was the tightening relationship between the United States and the Philippines, with the pair signing the 123 Agreement, also known as the 'peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement'.
The agreement allows US companies to export nuclear materials to the Philippines - a move which risks further antagonising China.
China has so far been unreceptive to attempts by Japan and the Philippines to reduce tensions over the waters.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. says the new agreement signals a positive step forward for the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
"We see nuclear energy becoming a part of the Philippine energy mix by 2032, and we would be more than happy to pursue this path with the United States as one of our partners. The signing of the Philippine-United States Agreement for cooperation concerning peaceful uses of nuclear energy, or the 123 Agreement, is the first major step in this regard."
And while there were reports of division between the Pacific leaders over their positions on Gaza and Ukraine, the group did come to an agreement as they pledged support for reforming the World Trade Organisation.
