In an escalating political debate, Defence Minister Richard Marles has defended the government’s handling of Chinese warship’s surprise exercise in the Tasman Sea on Friday, which was only brought to Australia’s attention by a commercial airline pilot.
Marles has revealed that despite previous reports, it is not clear that live firing took place in China’s naval exercise on Friday.
After receiving criticism from the Coalition for not more strongly condemning the incident, Marles said the government had made it “really clear that the notice was inadequate”.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“[China] notified a window which, according to the evidence and Senate estimates, would appear to have begun before the notice was given,” Marles said.
“But it’s also unclear whether or not live firing took place,” the defence minister said, noting that the New Zealand frigate that was observing the Chinese task group at the time didn’t observe any live firing on Friday.
Marles continued that whether the live fire had occurred or not, the advice was that China’s actions were in accordance with international law, but that the notice was “inadequate”, a view that Marles says has been expressed to Beijing.
He said that it “was unacceptable” that planes had to be told to divert midair, saying it would have been “deeply disconcerting” for the pilots involved.
Quizzed on the time it took for New Zealand authorities to alert Australia, reportedly as long as 90 minutes, Marles said it wasn’t a pertinent point because the New Zealand Navy were observing the exercise and it was “not a real incident”.
Read more about the incident here.
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