Joint media release:
- The Hon Andrew Hastie MP, Shadow Minister for Defence, Defence Industry and Defence Personnel
It’s been over three weeks since a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) jet fired flares at a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Seahawk, and still, Prime Minister Albanese nor a single Labor minister has spoken directly to their Chinese counterpart to condemn this dangerous and provocative incident.
The Albanese Government vehemently tried to defend the weasel words of the Prime Minister who publicly insisted to the Australian people that ‘representations had been made at every level’.
Through Senate Estimates we now know that those ‘representations’ were only made by officials such as Australia’s Deputy Defence Attache.
The Prime Minister’s own department officials also confirmed that Prime Minister Albanese had not requested a phone call with President Xi or Premier Li, saying “getting [and] arranging phone calls with Chinese leaders is not a straightforward or speedy process. We don’t do it very often.”
If the Prime Minister will not stand up for our Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel now, who will?
The truth is that the Prime Minister and his defence minister have failed our hard-working ADF personnel and misled the Australian public.
This is another example of weakness from the Albanese Government whose handling of defence and national security is nothing short of shambolic.