Coalition call Labor ‘shifty and sneaky’ over Russian military bid in Indonesia

The Government has refused to brief the Coalition over Russia’s alleged bid to operate warplanes out of an Air Force base just 1,300km from Darwin, despite appeals for clarity about a major issue of national security.

The Coalition is expected to keep up pressure this holiday weekend for more information on what the Government knew and when about Russia’s intentions, but Labor is reportedly citing caretaker conventions in an election period to avoid doing so.

The issue flared up on Tuesday after reports emerged in respected defence journal Janes of Russia’s approach to Jakarta to station “long range” military aircraft at the Manuhua Air Force Base in the province of Papua, about 1,400 km north of Darwin.

While Jakarta has assured Canberra it will not happen, neither the Australian Government nor Indonesia have categorically ruled out the request was made.

In a statement to the ABC, Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia Sergei Tolchenov defended military cooperation with Jakarta, including between air forces, as an “integral part” of the relationship and said it posed no threat to the region.

The Coalition has accused Labor of keeping it in the dark over the affair after a request to the foreign and defence ministers for a briefing went unheeded.

The details of Russia’s request remain unclear, and experts have warned that the future ability of Moscow being able to use an Indonesian military base, even on a rotational basis, would pose a risk to national security and to US and Australian military assets.

In a joint statement, shadow foreign minister David Coleman and shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie accused the Government of failing its own “transparency test” and of adopting “shifty and sneaky” language to avoid answering questions.

“Amid all the fumbling and obfuscation, the Government has refused to respond to the core question of whether it was aware of any request being made to Indonesia by Russia,” they said.

“Any approach to place Russian aircraft within short range of Australia is clearly a matter of critical national and strategic interest.”

The Coalition has slammed Labor for using the Easter break to escape scrutiny over the issue.

“The Coalition should be briefed on what the Government knew – or didn’t know - about any such request put to Indonesia from Russia, and what advice was provided to the Government by agencies on this important matter,” they said.

The shadow ministers said their request was made under “caretaker conventions.”

The conventions drawn up by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet say, “shadow ministers may be given approval to have discussions with appropriate officials of government departments.”

The Nightly contacted the Government for comment, but it is believed Labor does not view it has an obligation to provide briefings of this nature in an election period.

The issue overshadowed the campaign agenda this week and initially put the Coalition on the back foot after leader Peter Dutton had to admit he made a mistake in saying Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto had publicly confirmed Russia’s request.

At a Thursday press conference in Brisbane, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was “incredible” the Opposition was asking, “why didn’t Labor know about something that is not happening?”

“There was no statement from the Indonesian President, no statement from the Indonesian defence minister, no statement from the Indonesian foreign minister” he added.