Albanese failed to publicly mention China’s navy is trying to chase our ships and planes out of seas it wants to control

For four days the Albanese government kept secret China’s unprovoked aggression in an embarrassing sign of weakness after falling for the Chinese dictatorship’s flattery and spin.

Four days of extraordinary silence last week confirms Anthony Albanese’s leadership is broken.

He’s not just out of ideas at home, but played for a fool abroad.

Last Tuesday, a Chinese warship closed in on one of our frigates, HMAS Toowoomba, as it wallowed in international waters in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone with a fishing net wrapped around its propeller.

The Chinese destroyer ignored the Toowoomba’s warnings to back off, and instead sounded its sonar, injuring the eardrums of the naval divers cutting away the net, and forcing them to scramble out of the water to save themselves from more serious hurt.

Last Tuesday, a Chinese warship closed in on HMAS Toowoomba.

For four days the Australian government kept secret China’s unprovoked aggression.

Not until Saturday – a news graveyard – did Defence Minister Richard Marles slip out a press release revealing the attack and denouncing China’s “unsafe and unprofessional conduct”.

Now why might Marles have sat on this news for four days?

The most obvious explanation is to save Albanese’s latest trip – to his 30th country – from seeming another pointless farce, and his new friendship with China’s dictator a fraud.

Consider the time line.

Anthony Albanese is not just out of ideas at home, but played for a fool abroad. Picture: Getty

One week before China’s attack on the Toowoomba, Albanese was in Beijing, falling for the Chinese dictatorship’s flattery and spin.

The Chinese premier called him a “handsome boy”.

President Xi Jinping told Albanese he’d made a “deep impression”, adding that our Tasmanian devils were cute and our countries had “no fundamental conflict of interests”.

A flushed Albanese emerged from this ego massage to declare “diplomacy is back”, and his visit “an important step in stabilising relations with China”.

Yet just one week later, a Chinese destroyer injured our sailors on the HMAS Toowoomba. The Chinese had played Albanese like a fiddle.

But Albanese’s embarrassment was even worse.

This was exactly the wrong time to tell Australians about the attack.

You see, China injured our sailors last Tuesday, the day before Albanese was to fly off on yet another trip, this time to the APEC conference in San Francisco, and just after his hapless government had released 84 people from immigration detention – including murderers, rapists, an assassin and a pedophile.

Flying off to San Francisco already looked weak, especially when it meant leaving Opposition leader Peter Dutton to fix Albanese’s mess by designing laws to keep the detainees – freed by the High Court – under curfews and monitored with ankle bracelets.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has had to fix Albanese’s immigration detention mess. Picture: Martin Ollman

But there was an even bigger motive for Albanese not to tell us just then that China had just injured our sailors in a wanton act of aggression: in San Francisco he’d meet President Xi yet again.

A week earlier, Albanese had boasted “the engagement that I’ve had with China with President Xi have been positive”. Trade was flowing again!

How could he now have a confrontation with Xi, without looking like he’d been a sucker?

At least with the Toowoomba attack still secret, Albanese could meet Xi as if everything was still sweet.

Albanese boasted ‘the engagement that I’ve had with China with President Xi have been positive’. Picture: AAP

That’s exactly what happened.

On Friday, three days after the attack, Albanese told journalists: “I also had an opportunity to meet with President Xi and to thank him for the welcome and the discussions that we had in my visit to China recently.”

Albanese even boasted: “I reiterated to him that the signal that the impediments to trade between our two nations were reducing and being removed was received positively in Australia.”

Not once did Albanese mention the Toowoomba attack, certainly not publicly, and demand answers from Xi.

Not once did Albanese admit that for all the dictators’ sweet words about “co-operation” and “communication” and Tassie devils, China’s navy was still trying to chase our ships and planes out of seas it wants to control.

It was only as he flew home, cocooned in his RAAF jet, that his government revealed the Toowoomba incident.

But then it was too late for us to expect “handsome boy” to tell China’s dictator to his face that this was enemy action.

What a relief.

Originally published as Albanese failed to publicly mention China’s navy is trying to chase our ships and planes out of seas it wants to control