February 26, 2025
CLINTON MAYNARD: There has obviously been a lot of concern about the operations of the Chinese navy not in our waters but close to our waters. The fact that, and I brought you this news last week, that CASA had to issue a warning to pilots to change the course, to change their route. Well, it's been revealed, and this was revealed that it was actually Virgin Australia that made the alert, which is quite astonishing. Now, the Prime Minister has now been accused of misleading Australians about whether it was China that gave the Government notice of these live fire drills or it was Virgin. The PM claimed on Friday that China gave Australia notice about these drills. This is what the Prime Minister said.
[CLIP START]
ANTHONY ALBANESE: China issued in accordance with practice, an alert that it would be conducting these activities, including the potential use of live fire. It's outside of Australia's exclusive economic zone. It is the case that the notice was given when that occurs. Airlines are notified and stay out of the area.
[CLIP ENDS]
MAYNARD: Anthony Albanese, so he said China gave us the warning, but it's been revealed in Senate estimates that the ADF only learnt of this drill 40 minutes before it happened. And then you have the alert from Virgin. So, who's lying? Where's the truth? Is it the Prime Minister or the Chief of the Defence Force, David Johnston? The Opposition Spokesperson for Home Affairs, Senator James Paterson, has been prosecuting this case in estimates today, and he's just stepped out of the estimates hearing to update us. Thank you for your time, Senator. What is the latest?
JAMES PATERSON: Good to be with you, Clinton. Well, it's very clear that the prime minister has misled the public. The only question is, why did he do so? Because he was ignorant of the facts and he wasn't across the detail? Or did he deliberately do so? We now know there was no advance warning, no advance notification of these exercises, and there was no communication to the Australian Defence Force. It was only because a Virgin Australia flight happened to be in the area. They picked up a broadcast that the Chinese navy was engaging in this live firing exercise, and they relayed it first to Airservices Australia, our civil aviation safety authority, who in turn relayed it to Defence. And in fact, by the time Defence learned of it, the exercise had already been underway for half an hour.
MAYNARD: I've got a message here from one of our listeners, Rob. Now I think it's in jest, but this does indicate the confidence the Australian public has in the Prime Minister on this particular issue. Rob says, "I think they sent Albo a message on TikTok, which of course is owned by the Chinese.
PATERSON: Look, I understand the amusing aspect of that, but there's a very serious aspect of that here, which is it is the Prime Minister's job to stand up for Australia, to stand up for our men and women in uniform, and also to be upfront and honest and be clear with the Australian public about the facts. Now, he has misled the public, and he needs to correct the record. He has also said that notification through Airservices Australia via Virgin happened around the same time as we got notification from the New Zealand Defence Force. In fact, that's not true. The notification from the New Zealand Defence Force came one full hour after we got the notification from Virgin Australia via Airservices Australia. So it's a second way in which he has directly misled the public, and as recently as this morning.
MAYNARD: Well, we need to hear from Mr. Albanese on this. Just going forward with the Chinese and the Chinese military, what needs to happen? Do we need to actually have urgent talks with their government, with their military?
PATERSON: Well, we need a Prime Minister who's strong enough to stand up for Australia, and we need a Defence Minister who's willing to do so as well. Officials admitted to me in Senate Estimates this afternoon that the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles has not picked up the phone to his Chinese counterpart to make any representations about this. No, in fact the last time they told me he had spoken to his counterpart was in May or June last year. So he not only hasn't done so in relation to this serious incident, he didn't do so in relation to the incident earlier this month, where a Chinese fighter jet released flares into the path of an Australian surveillance flight in the South China Sea. So he's failed his duty. This is a very serious matter. There's nothing more important than safeguarding our national security, and there's no more sacred duty for government than standing with and standing up for our brave and patriotic and professional men and women in uniform, and this government has failed to do so.
MAYNARD: James, thank you for stepping out of that estimates hearing. I know you needed back in there at the moment. Thank you for your time.
PATERSON: Thank you.
ENDS
