The Guardian - China-Labor rejects claim it prioritised photo ops over Australian divers in Chinese navy incident

The government has said it appropriately registered a complaint with Beijing about an incident between Australian and Chinese navy ships last week.

The deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, had accused Anthony Albanese of “prioritising photo ops” with Xi Jinping rather than taking up the issue.

Senior Labor figures are remaining tight-lipped over whether Albanese raised the altercation with Xi during their meeting at the Apec summit, after divers from the HMAS Toowoomba sustained injuries said to be from sonar pulses emitted by a Chinese warship in international waters off Japan.

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, said on Monday the government had “taken a strong stance” that had been “made known to China through the appropriate channels”, but the Coalition opposition has questioned whether that included a face-to-face conversation between Albanese and Xi during their meeting last week.

“[Albanese] would have known this happened and he’s boasted about the time that he spent with Xi Jinping and China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, while he was there. But did he raise this question?” asked shadow home affairs minister James Paterson.

“He hasn’t said so and if he’s not saying so it would appear the answer is he didn’t.”

Marles, acting prime minister on Saturday as Albanese travelled home from Apec, announced what he described as an “unsafe and unprofessional interaction” between a Chinese destroyer and the HMAS Toowoomba, which was said to have occurred last Tuesday.

The Toowoomba deployed divers to remove fishing nets which had become tangled in its propellers, when, according to Marles’ statement, a nearby Chinese destroyer approached and was detected operating its hull-mounted sonar.

The divers sustained minor injuries, likely because they were subjected to sonar pulses, the defence minister claimed.

The incident comes as the federal government talks up Australia’s thawing relationship with China, with billions in trade restrictions from Beijing being lifted and a re-engagement through diplomatic channels in the wake of Albanese’s visit earlier this month.

Albanese said on Thursday he met Xi at the Apec summit in San Francisco. The maritime incident occurred on Tuesday but was announced on Saturday, after Albanese’s departure from Apec.

The Coalition over the weekend demanded to know whether the prime minister had raised the incident with the Chinese president in their conversations, but the government has not confirmed or denied this.

Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, told Radio National that it was “longstanding practice” not to comment on the content of conversations between leaders. Rudd called the question a “distraction” from the wider sonar incident, noting the government had publicly voiced strong criticisms.

Albanese’s office was contacted for comment.

Senior government sources pointed to Marles’ statement, noting concerns had been raised with China’s government. The prime minister’s office has not flagged any public appearances on Monday but Albanese shared a photo on social media of a cabinet meeting in Canberra.

O’Neil wouldn’t say directly whether Albanese had raised the issue with Xi, saying only that “the matter has been handled through the appropriate channels”.

“The Australian government has taken a strong stance against what is a very unacceptable incident that has put at risk people who signed up to defend our country in uniform. We take that incredibly seriously,” she told a press conference.

Asked about what the incident meant for the government’s hopes of further warming ties with China, O’Neil said Australia would not “play politics with our relationship”.

“China is not going anywhere … we are going to have to find a way to coexist in our region over the coming decades,” she said.

“We will continue to focus on managing this relationship properly.”

“We won’t say things about China to get a headline in Australian newspapers. This is a serious national security issue.”

Ley, in a post to social media, was critical of the government’s response.

“‘Cooperate where we can, disagree where we must’ should never mean stage managing CCP aggression that injures our ADF personnel,” she wrote, referencing Albanese’s common refrain on the relationship with China.

“More weak leadership from Anthony Albanese who appears to be prioritising photo ops with Xi Jingping [sic] over speaking up for our people.”

Paterson, speaking on ABC radio, also called for more information.

“We do have a delicate and important relationship with China, and Australia is seeking to stabilise that. But we should never sacrifice our interests in that process and the prime minister has repeatedly said we will disagree where we must,” shadow home affairs minister James Paterson told ABC radio.

“One of the areas which we should disagree is when the People’s Liberation Army Navy does deliberate harm to our Australian Navy divers, as they did last week in international waters in Japan’s exclusive economic zone.”

The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, told Sunrise that she wouldn’t comment on conversations between Xi and Albanese but again said the government had raised concerns.

“I can’t stress highly enough that we have made it very clear as a government that this is unacceptable, it’s unsafe and unprofessional behaviour,” she said.

“It’s absolutely vital that leaders can have conversations that they don’t then go out and report on. We know what happened when Scott Morrison released private messages between he and the French President Emmanuel Macron. It doesn’t help international relations to behave in that way.”

Appearing on the same interview panel, Coalition frontbencher Barnaby Joyce responded: “We were supposed to be normalising relationships with China. Is this how you normalise them?”