Anthony Albanese insists he will travel overseas again next week for an important forum, during a tense TV interview where he was confronted with his new nickname ‘Airbus Albo.’
The Prime Minister labelled the moniker a ‘cheap shot’ during two breakfast TV interviews on Friday, and said the attacks would not deter him from carrying out plans to travel to the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji next week.
Mr Albanese was slammed by critics, including Opposition MPs Dan Tehan and Angus Taylor, after spending one third of his time overseas since becoming prime minister on May 21.
But in an awkward twist, it has been revealed that Liberal leader Peter Dutton is currently overseas himself, in the United States with his wife Kirrily.
Mr Dutton told News Corp he was planning to ‘catch up’ with people in Washington and attend a leadership dialogue.
On morning television, Mr Albanese confirmed he, too, would be forging ahead with his plan to attend the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji next week.
‘I’ve got a job to do, and my job is to represent Australia.’
Anthony Albanese has shut down critics who branded him ‘Airbus Albo’ insisting he will travel out of the country next week
‘Look, Peter Dutton when he comes back from leave should say which events I shouldn’t have gone to,’ Mr Albanese said
Mr Albanese said it was important to build relations in the Pacific, given China’s relationship with the Solomon Islands, a close neighbour of Australia’s.
The PM separately told the Channel Nine on Friday that Mr Dutton should ‘say which events I shouldn’t have gone to’ overseas.
‘I didn’t decide the election would be May 21, just a couple of days before the Quad leaders’ meeting.
‘Should I have not met President Biden, the Prime Minister of Japan and the Prime Minister of Japan and the Prime Minister of India?
‘Should I have not gone to the NATO summit in Madrid? Should I have not repaired the relationship with France and advanced a trade deal between Australia and Europe that will create jobs and economic growth here in Australia?’
Mr Albanese flew to Japan for the Quad summit meeting just days after winning the election, and then made a two-day trip to Indonesia to meet president Joko Widodo.
He made a nine-day trip to Europe where he was invited to the NATO summit and held meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron in a bid to repair the two countries’ relations.
He then took a train to war-torn Ukraine to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky and pledge another $100million to help fight Russia.
Mr Albanese was called out for visiting the country while NSW was being battered by its fourth major flood in months.
Comparisons were drawn between the overseas trip to Scott Morrison who holidayed in Hawaii at the height of the 2019 bushfire disaster.
‘To compare a visit to a war zone like Ukraine with a holiday in Hawaii, I think your viewers can draw that distinction,’ Mr Albanese said.
The prime minister also lifted the lid on the dangers of travelling to the Ukraine and the moment he left behind his partner Jodie Haydon.
‘The security conditions had been raised just that week,’ he told Sunrise.
‘We know that, not just then but consequentially there has been blasts very close to where we were in Kyiv.
Mr Albanese then took a train to war-torn Ukraine to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky and pledge another $100million to help fight Russia
The prime minister also lifted the lid on the dangers of travelling to the Ukraine and the moment he left behind his partner Jodie Haydon
‘We visited, for example, a building two blocks away, a residential apartment block that had been blown up, two blocks from where we were.
‘We went to the airport where paratroopers had taken the airport, they had landed, they got forced out, the Ukrainians blew up the runway.’
Mr Albanese previously revealed he had to be smuggled into Ukraine, along with national security protection and media, without any phones or internet devices to avoid detection.
‘We didn’t have any electronic equipment – no phones, no internet, no communication with the outside,’ he said.
‘That was a matter of keeping us safe, but also keeping safe President Zelensky and and the Ukrainian people that we were meeting.
‘Because obviously there is a war going on – [but] apparently that should have just been dismissed.’
Comparisons were drawn between the Mr Albanese’s trip to the Ukraine to Scott Morrison who holidayed in Hawaii at the height of the 2019 bushfire disaster
He insisted he made contact with Premier Dominic Perrottet to discuss the NSW floods as soon as he returned from Ukraine and arrived back in Poland.
‘I immediately spoke to Premier Perrottet, I spoke to [federal emergency] minister [Murray] Watt, I spoke to the acting Prime Minister Richard Marles and made sure that every support was being offered,’ he said.
‘We were acting. We are not a one person show.’
Mr Perrottet also leapt to the PM’s defence and welcomed the new relationship between the federal and state government.
‘I know in some quarters the Prime Minister has been criticised for being away,’ he said.
‘What I would say is from my perspective, the federal government needs to balance international concerns and domestic concerns.
‘But as soon as he could, he picked up the phone to call me.’
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