Election 2025: Red flag on ALP’s intelligence iron curtain on Russia

The Coalition has accused Labor of a cover-up after it refused to grant a security briefing on ­Moscow’s bid to operate military aircraft out of Indonesia.

A Russian TU-95 bomber with an US Navy F/A-18 Hornet on its tail after it flew almost over US aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, south of Japan, in 2008. Picture: US Navy

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The Coalition has accused Labor of a cover-up after it refused to grant a security briefing on ­Moscow’s bid to operate military aircraft out of Indonesia, as one of the nation’s top Russia experts warns that the Kremlin is working with Beijing to destabilise the region.

Labor said the Coalition’s ­request for a briefing fell outside election caretaker provisions ­because no major policy decision was needed to be made requiring the opposition’s agreement.

The knock-back came after Anthony Albanese spent days sowing doubt over the reported Russian request while refusing to explain precisely what Indonesia had told his government.

The Morrison government was more forthcoming during the last election campaign when it granted a security briefing to Labor as a hi-tech Chinese surveillance ship sailed off Western Australia’s coast near a naval communications base. Labor also requested and received a security briefing weeks ahead of the 2022 election campaign after China’s surprise security agreement with Solomon Islands.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman David Coleman ­accused Labor of a “dodgy ­attempt to hide from scrutiny”, saying the position suggested the Albanese government had been unaware of the Russian request.

“This is a strategically crucial issue which goes to Russia’s ­apparent plans for military expansion in the Indo-Pacific region,” Mr Coleman told The Australian.

“The whole point of diplomacy is to know what is going on in the region. If the Albanese government had no idea of this report, they should just say so.”

He likened the situation to Labor’s reliance on a Virgin Australia pilot to learn about a ­Chinese live weapons drill in the Tasman Sea in February.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Indonesia’s then President-elect Prabowo Subianto shake hands during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow in 2024. Picture: AP

Caretaker conventions call for consultations with the opposition if the government needs “to make a major policy decision during the caretaker period that would bind an incoming government”.

They say a government should also consider seeking opposition agreement on Australia’s position if it needs to engage with foreign governments or enter inter­national negotiations during an election campaign.

Otherwise, opposition briefings are available during the ­caretaker period on “machinery of government and administration” matters.

A Labor source said a briefing was not warranted on the Russia issue because “there is no decision to be made”.

Former Defence official Peter Jennings said the Coalition should have been granted a briefing on an “international negotiation” after Defence Minister Richard Marles discussed the matter with his Indonesian counterpart. “That’s a serious thing to raise with an Indonesian minister, and therefore those caretaker conventions should have meant that the opposition should have been brought into the discussion,” he said.

ANU emeritus professor Paul Dibb at the National Press Club in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Former Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo said the fact there was no urgent policy decision to be made meant the ­Coalition was not entitled to a briefing under the conventions.

But he said it was good democratic practice to provide the ­opposition with national security briefings when they were requested. “If such requests are denied, it is for the government to explain the reasons for the denial,” Mr Pezzullo said.

The row came as one of Australia’s foremost experts on Russian strategy, Paul Dibb, warned Moscow was almost certainly co-ordinating with Beijing – whose warships conducted an unprecedented circumnavigation of Australia in February – to undermine the US and its allies in the Pacific as Donald Trump up-ended global norms. “This could be the beginning of something more worrying,” Professor Dibb said. “Putin and Xi Jinping would be comparing notes and asking, ‘What can we do together? How can we create turmoil and instability and demonstrate that the real power in this modern world is not the American former superpower, but the People’s Republic of China and Holy Mother Russia’.”

The opposition requested a briefing on the issue on Tuesday after the Janes defence journal reported Moscow had made a formal request to Jakarta in February to station long-range military aircraft from its Biak Island base, in Papua Province, about 1300km north of Darwin. The publication cited documentary evidence and Indonesian sources, and has stood by its report.

Indonesia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday it had not granted permission to any country to have a base in its territory, but it would “receive and permit military aircraft or vessels from other nations on peaceful missions to visit Indonesia”. Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia said a day earlier that military co-operation was an “integral part” of the relationship.

Mr Marles told Sky News on Thursday that the government was “utterly happy to provide briefings” to the opposition when circumstances required. But he said the Coalition was seeking a briefing on matters that “have not, in fact, been real”. The Prime Minister also declared on Thursday the Janes report was “simply wrong”.

“It’s not happening. There’s not a base. There was no statement from the Indonesian President, no statement from the Indonesian Defence Minister, no statement from the Indonesian Foreign Minister.”

Peter Dutton said the government still had questions to answer on the matter.

“The Prime Minister wants to pretend that it’s not the reality, but when he says that we live in the most precarious period since the end of 1945, these are exactly the things that he’s talking about, but his leadership is too weak to go any further to explain it to the Australian people.”