Anthony Albanese and Kurt Campbell following Australia's Pacific Policing Initiative announcement. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Lydia Lewis
Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has bridled at questions from RNZ about a private conversation where he joked with US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell about splitting the cost of the Pacific Policing Initiative.
The initiative was announced in Tonga on Wednesday and last night RNZ Pacific journalist Lydia Lewis filmed Albanese and the top US official discussing the ambitious plan, which could reshape the way policing is conducted across the region.
In the RNZ Pacific video, Albanese calls the announcement a "cracker" and said the initiative would make "such a difference" in the Pacific.
Campbell called the plan "fantastic". He also suggested that the US had been contemplating a similar initiative until Australia's ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd asked them not to.
"I talked with Kevin about it and so you know, we were going to do something like that and he asked us not to so we did not," he said.
"We've given you the lane, so take the lane."
After that Albanese joked that the US could wear some of the cost of the initiative.
"We can go halfsies on the cost if you like," he laughed.
"Only cost you a bit."
After that exchange the Pacific Minister Pat Conroy appears to intervene after noticing the RNZ Pacific journalist recording, asking her to stop.
Albanese brushed off the exchange when he was asked about it on Thursday morning in Nuku'alofa ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum leaders retreat on the northern island of Vava'u, saying there were no plans for the US to help cover the initiative's $400 million price tag.
"No, he won't, because this has come from the Pacific. And I'm aware of the video of a private conversation," he said.
"Kurt Campbell's a mate of mine, it's us having a chat," he said.
The prime minister became visibly irritated when journalists continued to press him on the exchange, and suggested it was unethical for Lewis to record him.
"Someone, you know, it's up to them, to whoever did that, to think about their own ethics when it comes to journalism," he said.
"It was a private conversation. It was a jovial conversation, and a friendly one - you know, it is what it is. People try and read something into it, you must be pretty bored, frankly."
He also brushed off questions about the initiative Campbell appeared to allude to, saying the deputy secretary of state had been misinterpreted.
The comment comes after some Melanesian leaders raised concerns that the new Pacific initiative should not be used to bolster Australia's strategic interests through a strategy of "denial" - a clear reference to boxing out China from the region's security arrangements.
When he asked if his joke with Campbell might exacerbate those anxieties, Albanese insisted that no Pacific leaders had raised any concerns during the leaders' meeting yesterday.
"No one's raised that yesterday. Not a single person at the plenary, raised that yesterday. This is Pacific led, and it's a cracker of an announcement," he said.
In a statement, RNZ defended Lewis, who wrote in her own story on the comments that she caught the conversation while filming cutaway shots during an event open to media.
"RNZ stands by its reporter and its reporting," RNZ chief news officer Mark Stevens said.
"Having spoken to our reporter, there is nothing to suggest they acted unethically or outside of our rigorous editorial policies."
Agreement raises hopes for New Caledonia mission
Albanese arrived in Tonga on Tuesday to join regional leaders at the forum, where violent unrest in New Caledonia is among other items on the agenda.
France has struck an agreement with local officials in New Caledonia and Pacific leaders which should allow a high-level regional delegation to visit the troubled Pacific territory shortly.
A planned mission with three Pacific leaders had to be postponed last week because France and officials in New Caledonia could not agree on who had ultimate control over the visit.
But France's ambassador to the Pacific, Veronique Roger-Lacan, confirmed that the terms for the Pacific mission had been settled, and simply had to be ticked off by Pacific leaders today during their retreat at Vava'u.
"The mission will be an information mission," she said.
"The time and duration of the mission will have to be decided, in discussion with the [Pacific Islands Forum], the French state, and the government of New Caledonia."
- ABC