Why was a Virgin pilot first to flag Chinese ships firing off Australia?

Peter Dutton has demanded the PM explain when the government became aware of a flotilla of Chinese warships conducting live fire exercises off Australia’s coast, after it emerged a Virgin pilot was the first person to flag the ships.

Peter Dutton has demanded Prime Minister Anthony Albanese explain when the government became aware of a flotilla of Chinese warships conducting live fire exercises off Australia’s coast.

“The Prime Minister is scared and he’s not up to his job,” Mr Dutton said on Wednesday, after it emerged a Virgin Australia pilot was the first to warn authorities the ships were firing live rounds.

Mr Dutton said Mr Albanese was “failing to answer basic questions” on the issue and wanted Mr Albanese to give an “honest account” of what the government knew and when, and what warnings were received ahead of the exercise.

“There are really significant questions that need to be answered here.

“If there was an incursion across into our borders and Defence didn’t know about it, or the Defence minister didn’t know about it, we need to ask those questions, and they should be answered, and frankly, the Prime Minister should stand up and explain what is a very significant event,” he said.

Why was Virgin pilot first to flag Chinese ships?

Late on Tuesday, the flotilla of three Chinese warships remained 296km east of Hobart as Defence officials and government ministers scrambled to explain how a Virgin pilot was the first to warn they were live firing in the Tasman Sea.

Emergency Management Minister Jenny McAllister and defence officials will be grilled in senate estimates on Wednesday and asked to explain why the Virgin pilot relaying a warning message from the three Chinese ships 30 minutes after the exercise began was the first anyone knew of it.

Coalition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie blasted Anthony Albanese over what he said was the prime minister’s “silence” on China’s actions.

“Now the Chinese warships have entered our exclusive economic zone off Tasmania,” Mr Hastie said.

“The message is direct and clear from the Chinese government and our prime minister is silent.

A Chinese warship in the Tasman Sea on Tuesday. Picture: Australian Defence Force

“Weakness is provocative — give an inch and they take a mile.

“This has been a test for the Prime Minister and he has failed to stand up for our national interest and insist on mutual respect.”

Defence experts have warned the “blatant bullying” of Australia is a test to see how the US under new President Donald Trump will respond to it pushing around a strategic ally.

“The worrying thing is that we have not heard a peep from Washington DC,” said Strategic Analysis Australia director Peter Jennings.

He called on Mr Albanese to “get on the phone” to President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping and stop being “a spectator” to events.

“He is probably the one person who can make those calls,” Mr Jennings said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with the Member for Bennelong Jerome Laxale on a visit to a Chatswood medical centre on Tuesday. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

Mr Albanese appeared to contradict Defence Minister Richard Marles who on Tuesday had said the Chinese had given no warning of the live-fire exercises through official channels.

“The Australian Defence was certainly aware, and I’ve spoken with the chief of the Defence Force, about what has occurred,” Mr Albanese said.

But in senate estimates earlier AirServices Australia’s chief executive Rob Sharp said the first warning came from a Virgin pilot just 250 nautical miles from the Chinese flotilla who relayed the warning message 30 minutes after the exercise began.

“It was, in fact, Virgin Australia advising that a foreign warship was broadcasting that they were conducting live firing 300 nautical miles east of our coast,” Mr Sharp said.

“That was how we first found out about the issue.”

As a result 49 aircraft, including several already in the air, were instructed to change their flight paths and the Australian Defence Force was informed.

A Chinese warship in the Tasman Sea on Tuesday. Picture: Australian Defence Force

Shadow transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie said it seemed the Prime Minister was unaware the Chinese had not followed the usual protocol giving 24 to 48 hours advance warning of a live fire exercise.

“That a Virgin pilot is our first line of defence against Chinese gunboat diplomacy is concerning to say the least,” she said.

“The swift response by air traffic controller at AirServices Australia was also remarkable in informing our ADF. However, questions remain as to how this live fire exercise could have commenced without any apparent knowledge of either the ADF or the NZDF.”

A Defence Force spokeswoman said it was aware Task Group 107 had advised of the live firing activity by verbal radio broadcast on Friday morning.

“The Australian government has raised its concern with the lack of notice on the live fire activity from the Chinese government, including through appropriate channels in Canberra and Beijing,” she said.

A Chinese warship in the Tasman Sea on Tuesday. Picture: Australian Defence Force

The live fire exercise has highlighted decades of underfunding in the Australian Defence Force that has left the Royal Australian Navy with its smallest and oldest fleet in years.

No Australian vessel can match the firepower of the Chinese 12,000 tonne Renahi-class destroyer which has 112 vertical launch missile cells and is currently off the coast of Tasmania with two other ships in Australia’s exclusive economic zone.

Australian aircraft have been monitoring the Chinese flotilla together with a New Zealand frigate, which is the only ship watching the fleet after Australia’s HMAS Arunta had to be resupplied.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the live fire exercise was “plainly an act of muscle flexing” designed to highlight China’s strength and Australia’s “relative weakness”.

He called for Australian ships to be sent off the coast of China to conduct a live firing exercise as a show of strength.

“It’s hard not to see this as intimidatory and, in the absence of a comparable Australian response – such as a live fire exercise in international waters close to China – to conclude that we are indeed somewhat cowed,” Mr Abbott said.

He said it was “more important than ever to keep our alliances strong” and given the “transactional nature” of Mr Trump’s presidency to “invest much more heavily in our own military capability”.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison told Sky News China was seeking “absolute control” of the region.

He also said a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, set to patrol the Pacific under the AUKUS security pact, “can’t come fast enough”.

“AUKUS, from its outset, has been perceived as such a threat to China,” Mr Morrison said.

“Nothing has rattled the Chinese government more in the last, I’d say, 20 years, or arguably longer, but certainly last 20 years.”

Originally published as Why was a Virgin pilot first to flag Chinese ships firing off Australia?