Anthony Albanese would have us believe that he was channeling the three wise monkeys yesterday.
When Chinese officials attempted to prevent Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who had previously been imprisoned in China on trumped-up charges, from being seen on camera moments before the prime minister addressed the media, Albo pleaded ignorance.
He didn’t see anything, he didn’t hear anything, he didn’t have much to say about it.
When asked whether it is acceptable to “import that kind of behaviour” into the “heart of democracy” in Australia’s Parliament, the prime minister became obfuscated:
“I didn’t see that,” he said. “I’m not aware of those issues,” Albo insisted. Before admitting it, “it is important that people are allowed to participate fully.” A bite of strength at the end. Next question.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is pictured shaking hands with China’s Li Qiang during a diplomatic meeting in Canberra on June 17.
Did the Prime Minister’s personal staff, comprising 11 media advisors, miss the incident that occurred right under their noses? Not to mention the dozens of communications advisers in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet?
It was a departmental official who tried to intervene and stop the Chinese from doing what they were doing. Former ABC journalist Dana Roberston heads up communications at PM&C.
The incident occurred at 12:30 p.m. and was quickly reported by all media outlets. The video was broadcast on Sky News’ continuing coverage shortly afterwards and the Prime Minister did not arrive in the room to begin his press conference until two hours after the incident.
Was nobody bothered by what happened? Are there no televisions on in your parliamentary offices? Maybe the Prime Minister’s entire media team was having a bite to eat? Or is it possible that the Prime Minister thought he was being clever by pretending he hadn’t understood the issue? He has given workshops on how to avoid finding himself in the middle of a diplomatic incident.
It’s a difficult choice: either the collective specialists surrounding the boss are completely useless at their job, or sniffing out an incident that was always going to be asked about at the impending press conference. Or the Prime Minister and his inner sanctum decided that ignorance really is bliss: Don’t tell the Prime Minister!
Perhaps they determined that it would be better for the prime minister not to disturb the visiting Chinese delegation, so he should simply say that he didn’t see it. Instead of, for example, pointing out that it is inappropriate for an authoritarian regime to exert its weight in our democratic parliament, elbowing journalists out of the way when it suits them.
This is not China, we don’t lock up journalists when they report uncomfortable truths.
Having witnessed the consequences of his weak response this morning on the radio, the Prime Minister hardened slightly, presumably now that he had seen and been told what had happened. Today he says it was a “pretty clumsy attempt” by Chinese officials, humbly boasting that it “helped her (Cheng Lei) return home.”
Ms Lei (pictured sitting and looking to her right) was hidden from view of television cameras by Chinese media officials (pictured far right)
An Australian media official (pictured in the cream jacket) came to Ms Lei’s aid and “got” between Ms Lei and another Chinese official who was trying to block her view.
Australian officials responded by physically blocking themselves to protect the Sky News presenter as China’s Premier Li Qiang’s second-in-command and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke to reporters.
Consider how ridiculous it is to think that the Prime Minister’s media professionals were too incompetent to inform him of what happened on the day it happened. It’s not exactly an inexperienced lineup that Albo has hired around him.
Its head of communications, Brett Mason, is SBS’s former senior political correspondent. Australian state news network dedicated to covering international politics.
Didn’t you know Chinese officials did what they did?
The two senior advisers working closely with Mason are former Guardian Australia political editor Katherine Murphy and Fiona Sugden, who has worked for several Labor prime ministers and opposition leaders, including Kevin Rudd and Bill Shorten.
Did you not see the political implications of the incident? Did Murphy miss it too?
My former colleague from Channel 10, Stela Todorovic, is also in Albo’s office these days. She was one of the best political reporters of the next generation during her time at the gallery, someone who always knew how to spot a good story.
Did everyone miss what happened? Or did he just not think it was notable enough to get the boss’s attention two hours after it happened? Before reaching the microphone in the same room where it happened, to answer the questions of the journalists who had witnessed everything.
I really doubt it.
Cheng Lei (left) is seen with a Chinese official nearby trying to block his view.
Or was the Prime Minister deliberately kept in the dark so that he could honestly and truthfully say what he did? That he had no idea.
Did Catherine the Great, one of the supreme moralizers of our time in the parliamentary press gallery for decades, before moving to the political staff, think that the virtuous option on this occasion was to hide the facts from the boss? I don’t believe it.
Murphy was always quick to hold political leaders like Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott and John Howard to account when he felt they were conveniently misinformed. She wouldn’t accept such a double standard, would she?
Body language expert Dr. Louise Mahler also doesn’t believe what Albo was selling:
“Let’s imagine you didn’t really see it and didn’t know it,” says Dr. Mahler. ‘In this case he would have asked more questions about what had happened and he would have said ‘of course, if that had happened it wouldn’t be acceptable’.
‘Instead: I had a response prepared in advance: ‘I didn’t see it.’ Then she followed up too quickly with a quick (not genuine) smile for the Chinese-Australian lady in the gallery.
Dr Mahler insists that the prime minister’s body language betrays that the problem had already been resolved: “This was clearly something they had previously discussed and organized.”
If the prime minister’s top priority was not to upset his Chinese guests, perhaps with the election around the corner his top priority should have been thinking about how the Australian public would view such antics.
Politely pretending you didn’t see something happening right under your nose in our democratic parliament simply doesn’t pass the political smell test. With a larger team of taxpayer-funded media advisers than any other MP has at his disposal.
If they had their time again, let’s hope that the Albo team would have done things differently.
