Coalition accuses PM of attempting to ‘mislead’ public in China warships fiasco
The Coalition has accused Anthony Albanese of attempting to ‘mislead’ the public in claiming a military notification on China’s live fire drills matched a commercial pilot’s warning.
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Defence missed a warning about Beijing’s live fire drills in the Tasman Sea because the Chinese warships used a short range radio frequency, meaning Australia only learned of the danger from a nearby plane 40 minutes after the exercise began.
After days of confusion about the chain of events about the Australian Defence Force’s awareness of the drills last Friday, the Coalition has accused Anthony Albanese of attempting to “mislead” the public with his claim a military notification had occurred at the “same time” as a warning passed on by Airservices Australia via a commercial Virgin pilot.
ADF chief Admiral David Johnston on Wednesday outlined a timeline that confirmed the Airservices notification came about 50 minutes before a military report from New Zealand.
As the three People’s Liberation Army-Navy ships tracked past Hobart heading south west in the direction of the Great Australian Bight, Admiral Johnston also acknowledged it was “possible” a Chinese submarine was travelling undetected alongside the vessels.
“I don’t know whether there is a submarine with them,” he said.
“I can’t be definitive.”
The revelations came ahead of a sober warning from Foreign Minister Penny Wong that Australia is facing a scale of global challenges “unprecedented” since World War II.
In a “snapshot” of Australia’s place in the world released on Thursday, Ms Wong will say “every day” Australians faced “confronting signs” international security was “increasingly fragile” and harder to predict.
“Bullies are threatening to use nuclear weapons, authoritarianism is spreading … institutions we built are being eroded, and rules we wrote are being challenged,” she will say.
The outlook highlights how Australia can use its foreign policy to protect its security, stability and prosperity in the context of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, war in the Middle East, unrest in Myanmar and China’s “assertive approach to its security and international relationships”.
The broad snapshot also outlines “opportunities” for Australia to engage with allies through trade and development, but its assessment of global security is timely given the ongoing Chinese warships saga.
Admiral Johnston on Wednesday gave Senate estimates a detailed timeline of the notifications the ADF received about the live fire drill conducted by Beijing last Friday.
At 9.58am a Virgin pilot picked up a short range warning broadcast in mid-air from the Chinese ship alerting the plane of its 9.30am to 3pm live fire drill “window”.
This was relayed to Airservices Australia, which at 10am commenced a “hazard alert” informing all flights in the area of the exercise.
The information reached the ADF at 10.10am, before also receiving a second notification at 11.01am after a New Zealand frigate passed on the same radio warning through defence channels.
Although the ADF had been surveilling the Chinese vessels for several days prior, Admiral Johnston said it was not possible to detect the short range radio signal used in the warning.
A vessel would have had to be placed within 20 nautical miles of the Chinese flotilla “at all times”, which he implied would likely have inflamed the situation given Beijing was acting lawfully in international waters.
Coalition Senator James Paterson said it was “remarkable” that Australia was “relying on civilian aircraft for early warning about military exercises by a formidable foreign task group in our region”.
Mr Paterson also accused the PM of attempting to “mislead the public” by suggesting there was notice given by China reported through military channels.
“He should be honest, admit we were never notified and call out this malign behaviour instead of making excuses for the People’s Liberation Army-Navy,” Mr Paterson said.
Mr Albanese said the government had been “conscious” of the presence of the flotilla.
“We had been monitoring along with New Zealand, and the New Zealand vessel … was tailing the task group as well,” he said.
Mr Albanese said this notification occurred at effectively the “same time” as the warning from Airservices.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said Australia had notified China it was unhappy about the lack of direct notification.
“Best practice was not followed in terms of the exercises (China has) been undertaking and have registered that both formally … and directly by the Foreign Minister,” she said.
Ordinarily Canberra would expect 24 to 48 hours notice of a live drill near Australia.
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