Government defends Anthony Albanese for not raising Chinese warship incident with Xi Jinping

Anthony Albanese met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco later in the week but appears not to have raised the matter. "The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, who of course is the defence minister, has expressed serious concerns to the Chinese government about that on behalf of the Australian government," Cabinet minister Murray Watt said on Sunday. The ABC has made multiple attempts to confirm if Mr Albanese raised the matter with Mr Xi but the government has refused to answer. Naval divers were working to clear fishing nets from the Australian frigate's propellers, when the Chinese warship began operating its hull-mounted sonar. Despite happening on Tuesday, the government didn't publicly announce the incident until Saturday morning, after Mr Albanese had held a press conference at the APEC summit. This was after he had met with Mr Xi. Mr Marles announced the incident in a statement, in which he said the government had expressed "Serious concerns" to China about "An unsafe and unprofessional interaction" with the Chinese warship. The Coalition has demanded the government explain why Mr Albanese wouldn't have raised the matter with Mr Xi in person.