Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, Australian sailors were injured by the reckless actions of the PLA navy. Why didn't the Prime Minister raise the issue in his meeting with President Xi?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The premise of the comments by the Leader of the Opposition are wrong. Here is what we do when we organise these things, for people who've—actually, I raised yesterday the quote of the Leader of the Opposition himself. When asked about his dealings, he said:

… there was engagement with Fiji, and as to private conversations, detailed briefings, that were conducted by DFAT and others, that's not something we will publicly comment on.

…   …   …

Look, in relation to what I said or what my office said in briefings, I'm not going to comment on that.

That's what he said. Yesterday, I quoted as well, just to keep both sides of this dysfunctional political organisation on side, both Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott. But it's also the case for the member for Cook. When he was Prime Minister, he said this:

We do that privately, we do that directly when we do these things.

Again and again—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will pause. The member for Herbert will cease interjecting, and the member for Wannon will cease interjecting, so I can hear from the Leader of the Opposition.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a situation, a very serious situation, where sailors were injured.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order—

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

None of the quotes that you're relaying relate to injury of Australian soldiers.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Resume your seat, Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition is in breach of the standing orders by simply coming to the dispatch box and giving a secondary speech. If he wants to raise a point of order, he will always get the call. He needs to state the point of order. I'll allow the Prime Minister to continue.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Cook said this about China: 'We do it directly when we do these things. Again, we don't get into showboating about this sort of thing. We just do it respectfully and within the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that we have with China. It is very important to Australia, and it enables us to engage with them on any number of issues, which we will continue to do. But we're not about to do those things in a way that is public.' They then went on, and he said, 'I'm not going to go into the discussion.' That's what the member for Cook said. He didn't leak a text message on that occasion but said, very clearly, that that was the case. I make this point, to someone who sat on the NSC for a period of time and all of that: every incident with China on this government's watch and every incident that has impacted Australian Defence Force personnel has been revealed publicly and has gone directly to China as well to make our position clear. On this government's watch, that has always happened. I'd be interested in whether that can be said across the board. He knows full well— (Time expired)

Opposition members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, members on my left. The member for Longman will cease interjecting.