Indonesia ties a ‘priority’ but Labor leader Anthony Albanese silent on China call

A trip to Jakarta tops the Labor leader’s list on the international stage, if he becomes Prime Minister, but he declined to say whether he will ‘pick up the phone’ to China.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese says he looks forward to ‘increasing our standing globally’ if he wins the election. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Anthony Albanese has vowed to strengthen relations with Indonesia if he wins government on Saturday but has refused to say whether he will try to reopen dialogue with China.

At the National Press Club on Wednesday, the Labor leader denied he would be a weak leader on the international stage, saying the US alliance, stronger regional relationships, and multilateral engagement would be at the heart of his foreign policy agenda.

He said he would also get Australia out of the climate change “naughty corner”, and – in a sledge at Scott Morrison – declared he wouldn’t leak text messages with international leaders.

Mr Albanese said his first international trip as Prime Minister after next week’s Quad meeting in Tokyo would be to Jakarta because Indonesia was “about to be a superpower”.

“We need to strengthen the relationship with Indonesia, and that would be a priority for me,” he said.

“We live in a region whereby in the future, we will have China, India and Indonesia as giants. We need to strengthen that economic partnership (with Indonesia). And one way that we can do that is by strengthening people-to-people relations as well.”

Mr Albanese said much of Labor’s foreign policy agenda was consistent with the Coalition’s, including “standing up for Australia’s values” in the face of a “more aggressive” China.

But he declined to answer directly whether he would “pick up the phone to President Xi”, who has piled billions of dollars in trade bans on Australia.

“I think that the relationship (with) China will remain a challenging one regardless of who wins the election,” Mr Albanese said.

The Labor leader said he looked forward to “increasing our standing globally” if he won the election by ratcheting-up the ambition of Australia’s climate change policies.

“We are in the naughty corner at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conferences. That's the truth,” he said.

“One of the ways that we increase our standing in the region, and in particular in the Pacific, is by taking climate change seriously, and the Biden Administration and Australia, I think, will have a strengthened relationship in our common view about climate change and the opportunity that it represents.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and French President Emmanuel Macron at the G20 in 2021. Picture: Adam Taylor

He hit back at Mr Morrison’s claims that he would be a weak leader internationally, saying the Prime Minister had himself damaged Australia’s international standing.

“You know what weak is? Weak is leaking a private text message with an ally,” Mr Albanese said, referring to the leaking of a text with Emmanuel Macron around the time of the AUKUS submarine announcement.

The text message from Mr Macron, which showed the French leader was unsure whether the $90 billion Attack-class submarines would go ahead, emerged as Mr Morrison argued France hadn’t been blindsided over the decision.

Earlier, Mr Morrison said Mr Albanese was “getting a bit ahead of himself” in declaring he would be sworn in as prime minister on Sunday or Monday if Labor won the election, so he could attend Tuesday’s Quad meeting next week in Tokyo.

The Prime Minister likened it to when former Labor leader Bill Shorten proclaimed himself “ready” for government by posing for a professional photo alongside key members of his leadership team.

“ (Mr Albanese) seems to be getting a bit presumptuous. He seems to think this election is already done, and we saw this last time when we had the last election,” Mr Morrison said.

“Do you remember, we had Bill Shorten with the Addams family photo before the last election, all there pretending they were already in their jobs? We are seeing a lot of that again from the Labor Party.”