Albanese’s anger over hot-mic moment ‘unedifying’: Coalition

Nuku’alofa, Tonga: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused a New Zealand journalist of behaving unethically for recording his conversation with a senior Biden administration official about a landmark policing pact on the sidelines of a major Pacific forum in Tonga.

As Albanese returned to Australia on Thursday afternoon after spending a day on a private retreat with Pacific leaders on a remote Tongan island, the opposition accused him of behaving in an “unedifying” way by blaming the young reporter for the hot mic-style incident.

In his candid chat with US President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific guru, Kurt Campbell, Albanese expressed his delight at locking in support for the Pacific Policing Initiative from members of the Pacific Islands Forum, joking about the US paying half of the $400 million Australia will spend on the pact.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was caught on a live camera discussing policy with Kurt Campbell.Credit: AAP

The policing project was widely seen as a blow to China’s efforts to woo countries in the Pacific to work with its law enforcement as it competes with the US for influence in the strategically significant region.

In remarks that could raise eyebrows in Beijing and some Pacific capitals, Campbell, the US deputy secretary of state, appeared to suggest that the Biden administration was planning a related initiative but backed away after discussions with Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd.

“Well, we had a cracker today getting the Pacific Policing Initiative through – it’s so important, it’ll make such a difference,” Albanese told Campbell in Tonga on Wednesday in an exchange filmed and uploaded to social media by Radio New Zealand reporter Lydia Lewis.

“It’s great that you did that,” Campbell replied.

“I talked to Kevin [Rudd] about it and we were going to do something and he asked us not to, so we did not. We’ve given you the lane, so take the lane.”

Albanese responded: “We can go halvies on the cost if you like.”

Realising what was taking place, Pacific Minister Pat Conroy chastised Lewis for filming the encounter, which took place during a break in official proceedings at the leaders’ plenary.

Mark Stevens, the chief news officer of Radio New Zealand, defended Lewis, saying: “Having spoken to our reporter, there is nothing to suggest they acted unethically or outside our rigorous editorial policies.”

Beijing regularly portrays Australia as little more than a proxy for US interests in the region, accusing it of behaving as America’s “deputy sheriff” and seeking to drag Pacific nations into a Cold War-style superpower conflict.

Pressed about the matter on Thursday, Albanese told reporters to “chill out” and disputed that Campbell had said the US had pulled out of a similar initiative to let Australia take the lead.

“It was a private conversation, a jovial conversation and a friendly one,” Albanese said, describing Campbell as a “mate of mine”.

New Zealand journalist Lydia Lewis said she caught the exchange while filming background footage.Credit: AAP

“The video is what it is: it’s up to whoever did that to think about their own ethics when it comes to journalism.”

Growing frustrated with the line of questioning, Albanese continued: “If people try to read something into it, you must be pretty bored ... journalists tend to identify themselves, I hope you do.”

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said it was “pretty unedifying for the prime minister to blame a journalist for his own indiscretions”.

“Why is he picking on some young New Zealand journalist, singling her out for just doing her job?” he said.

“He’s engaging in a newsworthy conversation in a public arena. He can expect to be filmed, and it’s up to him to provide the decorum that is required in that environment.”

In a piece for Radio New Zealand, Lewis said she caught the exchange while filming “cutaways” – background footage used for broadcast news stories.

Responding to the incident on social media, Greens defence spokesman David Shoebridge said: “Why are Labor and the Coalition so committed to being US toadies, so afraid to have an independent foreign or defence policy for Australia?

“Our neighbours see this and rightly treat us with suspicion.”

Lowy Institute analyst Mihai Sora said Campbell’s comments were surprising, and “show he had misunderstood the importance of Pacific leadership on matters of regional security”.

“The Pacific is not the United States’ lane to give,” he said.

Blake Johnson, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, disagreed, saying Campbell’s account of his conversation with Rudd showed “a bit of self-awareness and good co-operation between Australia and the US”.

“It’s great if the US said, ‘We won’t try to clog up space and confuse the matter’,” he said, adding it was best for the US to focus its energies on helping the Pacific on infrastructure rather than policing.

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