Peter Dutton has urged Anthony Albanese to “grow a backbone and stand up for the country” over his handling of Chinese officials targeting journalist Cheng Lei at a Parliament House event.
Sky News Australia journalist Cheng, who was detained in China for three years after they accused her of sharing a government briefing that had been provided to the media under embargo, was released late last year.
Her detention occurred at the height of tensions between Australia and China over human rights, trade disputes and COVID.
She is now a presenter and reporter for Sky News and it was within that capacity that she attended a signing ceremony at Parliament House with dozens of other journalists.
While sitting down with other journalists to cover the visit by Chinese Premier Li Qiang at Parliament House, she was suddenly encircled by visiting officials who tried to block her to ensure she did not appear in the video of the event.
The behaviour prompted two female public servants to try and shield Cheng from the behaviour and stand on either side of her, an act that has called for both women to be “awarded medals.”
‘Grow a backbone and stand up for our country’
During a press conference on Monday after the bizarre incident, Mr Albanese initially declined to offer an opinion, saying he had not seen what happened.
Liberal leader Peter Dutton said in his meeting with Chinese premier Li Qiang he raised the incident with Cheng Lei.
He criticised Mr Albanese for not adopting a stronger stance.
“Grow a backbone and stand up for our country,” Mr Dutton said.
“The job of the Prime Minister is to make tough decisions and to call out bad behaviour and to make sure that you do the right thing by Australians – and that’s what our Prime Minister should do.
“The Prime Minister clearly misled the Australian people yesterday, when he got up and did a press conference and said that he heard nothing of it.
“He didn’t understand what the question was, he didn’t know anything about it.
“It’s completely inconceivable, and the Prime Minister needs to stand up today to explain the discrepancy and explain why he didn’t tell the truth yesterday.”
‘The height of rudeness’
The strange incident was captured by multiple journalists who filmed the interaction on iPhones.
As two officials moved to obstruct her being filmed, one then refused to budge despite pleas from multiple Australian officials including one female public servant who upbraided him in front of the media.
“That was the height of rudeness,” she said.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham also confirmed the Coalition had raised the issue with Chinese officials.
“Ultimately, this visit is taking place in Australia. This was occurring in our Parliament House, and in our country, there is respect for the freedom of media,” Senator Birmingham said on Sky.
“Cheng Lei is a respected Australian journalist, she should have been treated as such, and the behaviour was inappropriate.
“Ultimately, I do hope that Chinese officials can reflect upon the fact that this was very counter-productive.
“It’s disappointing that the conduct by Chinese officials that shouldn’t have occurred, has detracted otherwise from a visit that is important and does provide opportunity for two countries to make the type of progress we would all wish for.”
Mr Albanese did respond to the issue on Tuesday, describing it as ham-fisted.
“We have different values and different political systems. And we saw some of that yesterday, I’ve got to say, with the attempt that was pretty ham-fisted to block Cheng Lei, the Australian journalist who we were able to bring home, at the press conference,” Mr Albanese told Perth’s Nova radio on Tuesday morning.
“There was a clumsy attempt, really, to just stand in between where the cameras were, and Cheng Lei. And the Australian officials did the right thing and intervened.”
Mr Albanese also told ABC radio that “our officials have followed up with the Chinese embassy to express our concern”.
Public servants should be given ‘medals’, says Pezzullo
Former home affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo said the behaviour of the Chinese officials was “frankly disgraceful” and the female public servants had shown courage.
“To have that democratic space desecrated in the way that it was by those Chinese officials – who, no doubt, were acting under instructions … was frankly disgraceful,” he told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.
“And full kudos to the Australian officials – there was at least one, if not two female Australian officials who, frankly, should be awarded public service medals on the spot for their grace, their resolve, and their courage and their Judgement.
“To come to the heart of our democracy and to seek to desecrate it like that, where we have completely different norms – I would say norms that are universally better norms where you have contestability, you have press inquiry, you have press freedom – to seek to block that was just a disgrace.”