Sunrise host Nat Barr has questioned why Anthony Albanese only made public an attack on Australian personnel by a Chinese naval ship after leaving a summit where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The government confirmed on Saturday that Royal Australian Navy divers were injured four days earlier by sonar pulses from a Chinese warship off the coast of Japan.
But the incident was only publicly confirmed after the Prime Minister met President Xi and Premier Li Qiang at the APEC summit in the US.
Opposition defense spokesman Andrew Hastie said if the Prime Minister knew about the incident and deliberately withheld the information it was “outrageous and unacceptable”.
He said Albanese should clarify whether he had raised the incident with his colleague as the two nations try to mend their frosty relationship.
He must also have petitioned Mr Xi and asked for an apology, Mr Hastie said.
Meanwhile, Barr asked Albanese Minister Tanya Plibersek why the administration waited to release details until after Mr. Albanese met with his Chinese counterparts.
Ms. Plibersek said she could not comment on the timing, which led to more questions from Barr that the secretary declined to answer.
Anthony Albanese has come under fire after details of an incident involving Navy divers and a Chinese warship will not be released until after the APEC summit
“So you’re saying the government has made it very clear to the government, but the point here is that our Prime Minister was there and apparently had a long conversation with the Chinese Prime Minister. Did Mr. Albanese bring this up? Barr asked.
Ms Plibersek replied: “Well, I’m not going to comment on what the Prime Minister says to other world leaders.
Barr interrupted, “How come?”
Ms Plibersek referenced the saga two years ago when then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison released private text messages with French President Emmanuel Macron, severing relations.
“It is absolutely essential that leaders can have conversations that they then don’t report on,” she continued.
“We know what happened when Scott Morrison released private messages between him and French President Emmanuel Macron.
‘It doesn’t help international relations to behave this way. We are behaving as a mature government would, to make it clear that we told the Chinese Covenant that this behavior was unsafe and unprofessional.
‘And that we have serious concerns about that. Our sailors do not deserve to be treated this way.”
Nat Barr demanded answers from Tanya Plibersek (left) about why the government delayed releasing details of the incident until four days later
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce believes the backlash against Mr Albanese is justified.
‘What the hell does he do when he’s abroad? I don’t think he loves us anymore. He left us and went away,” Mr Joyce said.
‘The intention was to normalize relations with China. Is this how you normalize them?’
Mr Joyce accused the Chinese navy of using sonar pulses to harm Australia
“They can cause enormous harm to people,” he added.
“This ship was not in Chinese waters. And now we have a Prime Minister who won’t say whether he has raised it. A mature government? Please. That’s for comedy hour. This is ridiculous.’
Australian Navy divers were forced to leave waters off Japan last week after a Chinese destroyer reportedly got too close and activated its hull-mounted sonar