Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been accused again of being “out of his depth” as he prepares to speak to world leaders about a potential Ukraine peacekeeping mission.
Mr Albanese is scheduled to be part of a phone call – organised by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer – involving the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Canada on Saturday.
The talks will be focused on the “coalition of the willing” to help defend and guarantee peace for Ukraine, which could see Australian soldiers deployed to the war-torn country.
Mr Albanese showed a “commitment to consider contributing” to the coalition during a phone call with Mr Starmer last weekend, according to a spokesman for the British PM.
Speaking from the Central Coast in New South Wales, the Opposition Leader was questioned by Sky News if Australia should be involved in the coalition call.
Mr Dutton described it a “shoot from the hip announcement” by Mr Albanese after he said he “would give consideration to participating in any peacekeeping mission” – claiming France, Italy and Germany showed no commitment to sending soldiers.
He pointed to last month’s discovery of Chinese naval ships off the NSW coast which were first spotted by a Virgin Australia pilot who then alerted authorities.
“Yet the Prime Minister is wanting to commit thousands of our troops to go and serve in Europe. It just doesn’t make any sense,” Mr Dutton said on Friday.
“I think the Prime Minister’s out of his depth when it comes to national security.”
Mr Dutton said he would be opposed to deploying Australian troops to Ukraine.
He flagged his support for the war-torn nation from “day one”, sending the first load of Bushmasters to assist and that they had always opposed Russia’s “evil invasion”.
“But not with troops on the ground… this was a thought bubble by the Prime Minister. The Defence Minister (Richard Marles) has tried to walk it back,” Mr Dutton said.
“Our priority is our country and my priority as Prime Minister and Andrew Hastie’s priority as Defence Minister would be to invest in our defence forces and to make sure we can keep our country safe in a very uncertain world.”
Responding to questions on Friday about the world leaders’ meeting, the Prime Minister said he would not “pre-empt” the outcomes of the call but reiterated Australia’s support for Ukraine.
“I won’t pre-empt what comes out of that meeting, but Australia has of course stood with Ukraine from the beginning of this process,” he told reporters in Perth, as he hit back at Mr Dutton.
“It did have a bipartisan position. It appears that Mr Dutton has walked away from that – that’s a decision for him.
“But we stand with Ukraine and we stand against and remain committed to opposing the actions of Vladimir Putin.”
Mr Albanese said he looked forward to reengaging with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as other democratic leaders.
“Of course, in order to have a peacekeeping mission, you need to have peace,” he said.
“We look forward to there being peace in Ukraine, but we don’t have to think very hard about which side we’re on in this conflict.”
The potential for peacekeepers being sent into Ukraine would only happen if Russia agrees to the United States’ terms of the 30-day ceasefire proposed this week.
Russia has already urged Australia to not intervene, with the embassy in Canberra warning that joining the coalition of willing “would entail grave consequences”.
It also accused Australia of being “firmly on the side of war” and that Canberra was “betting on continuing and escalating the conflict”.
“Once again, Western boots on the ground are unacceptable for Russia, and we will not remain passive observers,” the statement said.
“To those inclined to construe the above as a threat: it is not. It is a warning. Russia has no intention to harm Australians, and Canberra can easily avoid trouble by simply refraining from irresponsible adventurism in the zone of the Special Military Operation.
“It might seem even more ironic that a government so heavily invested in protracting the war has suddenly developed an interest in peacekeeping.
“But maybe it is not so surprising after all.”
Mr Starmer has suggested deploying 30,000 peacekeeping troops.
