Anthony Albanese ‘misled public’ over China ‘notice’ of live fire drill

Defence officials have confirmed that the department learned of the drill only after a Virgin pilot relayed a warning broadcast it received in mid-air, despite the PM saying ‘notice was given’.

Anthony Albanese has been criticised over his handling of a live fire drill by the Chinese navy.

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Anthony Albanese has been accused of misleading the public by arguing a Chinese naval task group gave “notice” of a live fire drill off Australia’s east coast when it provided no advance warning of the exercise.

Defence officials confirmed in Senate estimates that the department learned of a live fire drill by the People’s Liberation Army-Navy ships on Friday about 40 minutes after it had begun.

The Chief of the Defence Force David Johnston said Defence were told of the drill about 10 minutes after a Virgin pilot relayed a Chinese radio broadcast it received about 9.58am, of a live weapons drill occuring between 9.30am to 3pm.

A New Zealand frigate also heard and passed on the radio warning through defence channels, but its notification didn’t come through to Defence until 11.01am, Senate estimates heard.

Admiral Johnston said the notification of the “clearly disruptive” exercise had been “inadequate”.

His comments followed those of the Prime Minister, who said on Friday that “notice was given” by the Chinese of the exercise, and on Saturday that “notification did occur of this event”.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister also suggested the warning from the New Zealand navy ship was received “at around the same time” as the one from the Virgin pilot, when it was received an hour later.

But Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the delayed notice meant there was no advance warning of the drill at all.

“It’s not really notification of an upcoming exercise if we only find out about it after it has commenced, is it?” he told Senate estimates.

In comments to The Australian, Senator Paterson added: “The Prime Minister’s attempt to mislead the public by suggesting there was notice given by the PLA-N and it was reported through military channels in a timely way is yet more evidence of his weak leadership.

“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.”

‘Possible’ that nuclear sub part of Chinese fleet

Admiral Johnston said it was possible a nuclear submarine was accompanying a Chinese naval task group, that was currently sailing 250km south of Hobart.

“I don’t know whether there is a submarine with them,” he said.

“It is possible. Task groups occasionally do deploy with submarines but not always. I can’t be definitive on whether that’s the case.”

Admiral Johnston said Chinese warships had operated off Australia’s south-east coastline in the past, but the latest task group was unprecedented in that they had travelled down the coast from Southeast Asia, rather than transiting north from the Southern Ocean.

On Monday, Airservices Australia chief executive Rob Sharp told the Senate hearing that the air traffic authority became aware of the danger to aircraft at 9.58am AEDT when the Virgin pilot relayed the warning. Almost 50 planes were forced to change their flight plans as a result of the exercise.

Chief of the Defence Force, Admiral David Johnston at senate estimates. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“It was in fact a Virgin Australia aircraft that advised one of our air traffic controllers that a foreign warship was broadcasting that they were conducting live firing 300 nautical miles east off our coast,” Mr Sharp said.

“At 10am our air traffic control commenced what we call a ‘hazard alert’ which basically alerts all flights in the area that there’s a hazard, so that was done within two minutes.”

Airservices Australia’s deputy chief executive, Peter Curran, said the Virgin pilot had monitored radio transmissions directly from one of the Chinese warships on a frequency that was not monitored by air traffic controllers.

“We can’t hear what was said, so the pilot of the Virgin aircraft heard what was said from the Chinese vessel, relayed that back to air traffic control (who) then passed that through our system and started giving hazard alerting to all aircraft on the frequency,” Mr Curran said.

The Albanese government has since lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing over the drills, complaining about the lack of advance notice. Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Sunday that the People’s Liberation Army had issued repeated safety alerts ahead of the drills and that his country was “strongly dissatisfied” with Australia’s response.

“China’s actions are in full compliance with international law and international practices, and will not affect aviation flight safety,” Mr Wu said.

“Australia, knowing this well, made unreasonable accusations against China and deliberately hyped it up. We are deeply surprised and strongly dissatisfied with this.”