Points of order as Coalition puts Anthony Albanese’s integrity in the dock

Anthony Albanese’s promise to restore integrity in politics has come under attack, after he claimed he hasn’t taken leave this year and doesn’t talk about conversations with world leaders.

Anthony Albanese has come under fire for refusing to say whether he raised a Chinese warship’s dangerous sonar usage near Australian divers with Xi Jinping at last week’s APEC ­summit. Picture: Getty Images

Anthony Albanese’s promise to restore integrity in politics has come under attack from senior Coalition figures who have accused the Prime Minister of misleading Australians over claims he hadn’t taken leave this year and didn’t talk about conver­sations with world leaders.

Ahead of parliament returning next week, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is leading a Coalition push aimed at undermining Mr Albanese’s pledge to be upfront with voters.

At the Ethnic Business Awards in Sydney on Monday night, Mr Albanese told hundreds of people that he missed last year’s event because he contracted Covid-19 for the second time.

“It is not all downside, of course – it did mean I had a week off, which I haven’t had a week off since. It was unfortunate though the timing of it,” he said.

After Labor won the Aston by-election on April 1, becoming the first incumbent government to win an opposition seat in more than 100 years, Mr Albanese announced he would take one week off from April 8, with Richard Marles and Penny Wong filling in as prime minister.

“I’m actually going on leave on Saturday. I have not had any leave this year so I will be on leave for one week. I look forward to also not holding press conferences and having a bit of a rest. I will be in Australia but I’d ask that my privacy be respected,” Mr Albanese said.

His claim that he doesn’t talk about private conversations with world leaders has also been ­questioned by Coalition frontbenchers after he previously revealed contents of informal conversations with global counter­parts.

The Sydney Morning Herald on October 27 revealed that Mr Albanese confirmed he personally raised the plight of jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with US President Joe Biden.

“Albanese confirmed to this masthead that he raised his concern about Assange in his discussions with the president,” the SMH wrote.

Mr Albanese has also come under fire for refusing to say whether he raised a Chinese warship’s dangerous sonar usage near Australian divers with Xi Jinping at last week’s APEC ­summit.

The government waited four days to reveal the incident, coinciding with Mr Albanese departing San Francisco after meeting Mr Xi.

When asked on Monday if he had directly raised the incident with Mr Xi, Mr Albanese would not say.

“When I was in San Francisco, there was no bilateral meeting with President Xi, where you give a readout of what the events occurred (sic). I don’t talk about private meetings on the sidelines, discussions I have with any world leader,” he told Sky News.

After Peter Dutton criticised him for not holding a national security committee of cabinet meeting following the October 7 Hamas attacks, Mr Albanese said the government didn’t talk about NSC.

“What I don’t do is foreshadow either past, present or future, talk about (the) national security committee,” Mr Albanese said in October.

However, he and senior government figures have discussed timing and broad subjects discussed by NSC meetings on multiple occasions, including a recent meeting to discuss emergency powers legislation in response to the High Court ruling on indefinite detention.

Mr Albanese has made at least five references to NSC meetings since winning the election.

Ms Ley accused Mr Albanese of “having a very problematic relationship with the truth” and suggested he had been dishonest with the Australian public after claiming that he hadn’t taken a holiday this year.

Mr Albanese made trust and transparency a central theme of his election pitch after seizing on scandals involving Scott Morrison, including French President Emmanuel Macron accusing the former prime minister of being a liar.

A government spokeswoman said “integrity should be above partisan politics – but at every point we see an opposition that failed to learn from its failings in government and only interested in scoring cheap political points”.

“The Albanese government delivered the long overdue, independent and transparent National Anti-Corruption Commission, is implementing recommen­dations from the royal commission into robodebt and has delivered legislation to ensure there is no repeat of the Morrison multiple, secret ministries,” she said.

Laying the ground for a parliamentary clash next week, Ms Ley said Mr Albanese “thinks he can say one thing to one audience, the opposite to another, and he couldn’t care less when what he says contradicts the truth”.