Importance Score: 20 / 100 🔵
Wong says Dutton ‘fabricated a statement by the Indonesian president’
As I mentioned a moment ago, Penny Wong has come out swinging against Peter Dutton over his response to reports yesterday that Russia had requested access to Indonesian bases for its aircraft.
Wong and the deputy PM, Richard Marles, are doing a round of interviews this morning, starting on ABC News Breakfast.
Wong says she and Marles engaged through “appropriate channels” while Dutton “fabricated a statement”:
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We engaged through the appropriate channels – that is, me to the foreign minister, the defence minister to the defence minister, as well as at diplomatic levels, and very quickly we gained the confirmation.
Peter Dutton fabricated a statement by the Indonesian president. Now, this is an extraordinary thing for a man who wants to be the prime minister to do – to actually try and verbal the president of Indonesia in order to make a domestic political point. He is simply too reckless and too aggro.
Key events
Albanese also won’t clarify whether a request was ever made by Russia to Indonesia.
He’s asked first whether the commentary out of Russia was an act of misinformation by Russia to interfere in this election? Albanese says:
What I know is that there’s no statement from the Indonesian President, and what Peter Dutton said was not true.
He’s pushed by another reporter whether that report from a defence publication was true or not.
You’re assuming the Janes report is correct. And there is no basis for you assuming that…
I’m saying, I’ll act diplomatically with our friends in Indonesia. That’s what I’m saying.
Chalmers: ‘disqualifying moment’ from Dutton
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, also digs into Dutton’s comments yesterday, calling the opposition leader “risky” and “reckless”:
Peter Dutton is too risky and too reckless to be the prime minister of a great country like ours. He is temperamentally unfit to manage our relationships in the world and to manage our economy here at home and Australians will pay for his recklessness …
What we saw yesterday was a disqualifying moment from Peter Dutton when it came to the comments that he made about the Indonesian president. It is a disqualifying moment whenever he lies in ways that are bordering on the pathological about the Australian economy.
Albanese says Dutton ‘always overreaching’
Albanese adds a criticism of Peter Dutton on the reports of Russia requesting permission to use Indonesia’s air base to his preamble. He also accuses Dutton of having “verballed” the Indonesian president, and says there was “extraordinary overreach” from the opposition leader.
He verballed the president of Indonesia…
What we saw yesterday was Peter Dutton doing what he does consistently, which is always, always overreaching, always dialling it up to 11. But in this case, being quite reckless, quite reckless, with a neighbour of Australia that is an important neighbour and friend of Australia.
Albanese starts day in Deakin electorate in Melbourne
Anthony Albanese is in Melbourne this morning, standing up in front of another housing site.
That of course means the government’s housing plan is still their focus of the day, ahead of the leaders’ debate tonight.
Albanese is in the seat of Deakin, which is held by the Liberals on a super tight margin.
28,000 homes under the housing Australia Future Fund are either in under construction, like these ones here or in planning.
Independent for Watson places Labor ahead of Liberals on how-to-vote card – though both far below the Greens
An independent challenging the Western Sydney seat of Watson has released his how-to-vote card, putting Labor ahead of the Liberals, but both far down on the preference list.
Western Sydney is facing a challenge from independents, some campaigning heavily on the government’s response to the war in Gaza.
The seat of Watson is very safe Labor territory, and has been held by cabinet minister Tony Burke for more than 20 years. Burke’s margin at the last election was 15.2%
But independent candidate Dr Ziad Basyouny poses a threat.
Basyouny has released his how to vote card – putting the Greens second on the ticket, then Burke in sixth and the Liberal candidate in seventh. The trumpet of patriots candidate has been put fourth.
Kremlin refuses to comment on Indonesian airbase report
The Kremlin declined to comment, when asked on Tuesday about the media report that Russia had asked Indonesia for permission to base its aircraft on its territory, saying there was a lot of “fake news” around, Reuters reports.
Defence publication Janes reported that Jakarta had received an official request from Moscow, seeking permission for Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) aircraft to be based at a facility in Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua.
In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the report: “There are a lot of different pieces of fake news around, publications in the media, including those that relate to sensitive areas. But in this case we are not commenting on such publications.”
Anthony Albanese confirmed yesterday the Australian government was seeking clarity on the report, and Richard Marles and Penny Wong both said this morning they were told there would be no Russian air force planes based in Indonesia.
Russia has friendly relations with Indonesia, with which it conducted joint naval exercises last year.
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian security council secretary, visited Indonesia to discuss security and defence issues in February. Russia’s deputy prime minister, Denis Manturov, met Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, at the presidential palace in Jakarta on Tuesday, according to a local television report.
Jane Hume claims Wong ‘blindsided’ by Russia-Indonesia air base reports
The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, also joined ABC News Breakfast this morning, and says Wong was “blindsided” by the reports of Russia requesting access to Indonesia’s bases for their aircraft.
Hume was asked about Wong and Marles’ accusations of Peter Dutton verballing the Indonesian president and calling him “aggro” and “reckless”. Hume said it was a “bizarre” comment:
That was a bizarre comment. It sounds very defensive from a Foreign Minister. Clearly, she was blindsided by this report and has been on the back foot since. We’re not going to apologise for having a strong leader that will stand up for national interests
Hume was also asked about leaked footage on social media, reported by News.com, of the shadow education minister, Sarah Henderson, telling an event that free Tafe is “not working”.
The Coalition voted against the government’s legislation to extend free Tafe places near the end of last year.
Hume claims that completion rates are “extraordinarily low” and says the Coalition’s policy is to support businesses to take on apprentices.
We don’t believe that fee-free Tafe is delivering on its promise. People are starting courses. They’re not finishing courses. If you’ve got an unsuccessful policy, why would you continue it?
Marles refuses to confirm if Russia made a request to Indonesia over air bases
Marles has confirmed this morning he’s spoken with his defence counterpart in Indonesia, who has assured him there will be no Russian aircraft on Indonesian bases.
However, the government has remained coy on whether the Russians actually put a request on the table to the Indonesians in the first place.
On the Today show, Karl Stefanovic asks that very question to Marles, who wouldn’t confirm whether a request existed.
It was made… clear to me that reports of a prospect of a Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia are completely false, and that Indonesia has no intention of doing this whatsoever. And obviously, that is very good news from our point of view.
Stefanovic tried to push again:
Stefanovic: …Did Russia put the air base on the table or not?
Marles: Well, I mean, Russia we know Russia is active in the region. We know that they have conversations with people … And I’m not about to go through the details of this in the media, unlike what Peter Dutton sought to do yesterday.
Marles goes hard again on Dutton, saying, “I cannot overstate the dangerous nature of an alternative prime minister of this country seeking to put words in the mouth of the president of Indonesia, which turned out to be completely wrong”.
Paterson says Australia should be proactive, not reactive when it comes to Russian presence in the Pacific
Cannane puts the question he put to Marles about whether there’s discomfort over Indonesia’s relationship with Russia – particularly as the war in Ukraine continues.
Paterson says Indonesia is a “sovereign country” and Australia can’t “dictate to them who they can meet with”.
He adds that the meeting between Russian official Sergei Shoigu and Indonesia’s defence minister and president earlier this year, shows the “importance” Russia places on that relationship:
Russia is obviously placing very great weight on the importance of this relationship. They’re in the middle of their largest war since the end of world war two, and they sent their defence minister to Indonesia to meet with Indonesian officials.
That shows how serious they are about establishing a presence in our region, and it shows why we should take it seriously and why we need to be proactive, not reactive, as the government appears to be.
Paterson says Labor still has questions to answer over Indonesian and Russian matter
Following Marles, Coalition campaign spokesperson and shadow home affairs minister James Paterson appears on RN Breakfast.
Paterson says he “welcomes” the clarification but believes there are still questions for the Albanese government to answer.
There are some still some unanswered questions about this, and the particularly important one is, what did the Albanese government know? When did they know it?
Steve Cannane asks Paterson about his own leader’s comments that Wong and Marles have heavily criticised this morning. Paterson says:
Well, Peter [Dutton] was referring to media reports in a breaking news story. At that stage, we’d not yet been briefed. In fact, we still haven’t been briefed, even though we’re entitled to be briefed under the caretaker provisions on sensitive foreign policy.
He then attacks the prime minister for confusing the defence force and border force over who was monitoring a Chinese research vessel sitting off the coast of Australia.
Marles waves off Russia-Indonesia meeting and says what’s important is Australia and Indonesia’s bilateral ties
Cannane asks whether Marles feels uncomfortable that Sergei Shoigu, a high-level Russian official, met with Indonesia’s president and defence minister in February.
Marles says Russia and Indonesia have had a longstanding relationship, so “there’s no news in that”, and points to Indonesia using “Russian kit” in their defence force. He says what important is that Australia is strengthening ties with Indonesia and the broader region.
What’s important is that we, in terms of our bilateral relationship with Indonesia, are taking it forward to a place that it hasn’t been before. The defence cooperation agreement that we signed with Indonesia last year, that I signed with my then counterpart, now president, is an enormous step forward in terms of our bilateral relationship.
Marles says Indonesia told him ‘no prospect of any Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia’
Richard Marles has joined RN Breakfast, and won’t confirm whether there was a request from Russia to Indonesia, but says he’s been told there is “no prospect of any Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia”.
Marles confirms he’s spoken to his counterpart in Indonesia, and also attacks Dutton over his comments yesterday that there had been a statement released from the Indonesian administration.
Indonesia’s position is that there is no prospect of [Russian aircraft] operating from Indonesia. And that was made unequivocally clear to me, and that is entirely consistent with the relationship that we have built with Indonesia.
Marles says the relationship between Australia and Indonesia is strong, “we are enjoying, I think, the best relationship that we’ve ever had with with Indonesia”。
Host Steve Cannane asks Marles whether his counterpart told him if there was an approach made by Russia. Marles won’t bite.
Well, I’m not going to go into the details of the conversation beyond what I have said, which is that Indonesia is unequivocal in the fact that there won’t be, there won’t be Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia. And it is important that I’m not canvassing that in the public domain.