‘Sneaky, shifty’: Coalition claims Labor is keeping it in the dark on Russia and Indonesia

The Coalition has accused Labor of keeping it in the dark about an alleged Russian request to base long-range aircraft in Indonesia, but the government insists it has no obligation to provide special briefings to the opposition during the election period.

The Coalition lodged a request for a briefing on Tuesday after the Janes military website reported that Russia had made an official request to base military aircraft in Biak Island, in the province of Papua, but the Coalition’s request has not been granted and could prove difficult over the Easter long weekend period.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie and opposition foreign affairs spokesman David Coleman have accused the government of failing a “transparency test” and adopting “shifty and sneaky” language on whether it was aware of any request by Moscow about basing aircraft in Indonesia.

Liberal Party spokesman James Paterson said the caretaker conventions dictate that the opposition should be briefed on such matters.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Any approach to place Russian aircraft within short range of Australia is clearly a matter of critical national and strategic interest,” Coleman and Hastie said.

“The Coalition should be briefed on what the government knew – or didn’t know – about any such request put to Indonesia from Russia, and what advice was provided to the government by agencies on this important matter.

“There are serious questions which the government is trying to run away from in the context of the extended Easter break.”

The shadow ministers said their request to Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles was “made under caretaker conventions”, which provide guidance on how government and the federal public service should function during the election campaign.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie have both been forced to retract comments over the affair after Dutton falsely said Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto had “publicly announced” a Russian request and McKenzie inaccurately claimed Russia’s defence minister had said he did not want Dutton to be elected prime minister.

Indonesia has said it is happy for friendly militaries to visit but has never granted permission for a foreign base on its soil.

Asked on Thursday afternoon whether the Coalition should take more care to get the details right, Coalition election spokesman James Paterson said: “One thing that will be helpful with those details is if the government abided by the caretaker conventions and provided us with the briefings that we’ve requested that we are entitled to.”

The Coalition says that Labor was provided a briefing in the 2022 campaign when the Solomon Islands struck a security agreement with China and that it expects the same courtesy during this campaign.

A Labor campaign spokesperson declined.

Government sources, however, countered that there was nothing in the caretaker conventions dictating that the opposition should be granted briefings on foreign policy or national security issues during the campaign.

The caretaker conventions, published by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, state that “shadow ministers may be given approval to have discussions with appropriate officials of government departments” after an election is called.

“The subject matter of the discussions would relate to the machinery of government and administration,” the conventions add. The conventions also state that “judgment and common sense” should be applied.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Wednesday that the government was “utterly happy to provide briefings” and that “there is no issue with a briefing” on the issue.

He went on to tell Sky News that a briefing would not be especially useful because, he claimed, “there is nothing that has happened here”.

The Janes journalist who broke the story has insisted, despite denials from the Indonesian government, that his report was accurate and said it was based on “a few weeks of speaking to well-placed sources within the Indonesian government”.

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