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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has suggested Australia will send military personnel rather than a warship to assist the United States in protecting shipping routes in the Red Sea, a move the Opposition described as weak and inadequate.
Australia joined the US and 44 nations in a joint statement condemning Iran-backed Houthi rebels’ attacks on commercial ships travelling through a key trade route. The attacks also prompted US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to create a task force to protect supply chains.
A Houthi helicopter approaches a cargo ship in the Red Sea.Credit: AP
The opposition has characterised Labor’s response to a general US call for help as weak and equivocal, which acting Opposition Leader Sussan Ley claimed would be causing frustration among Australia’s key allies.
Albanese said on Wednesday Australia was “making a contribution” to the 39-country Combined Maritime Force, which had held a virtual meeting the previous day attended by the Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Angus Campbell.
Asked if Australia would be sending a warship, Albanese said Australia would be examining whether to send “further personnel” to the Bahrain-based mission.
“We think that it is important that navigation and freedom of movement be allowed. We condemn the actions of the Houthi and the disruption that is occurring,” he said at a joint press conference with New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon in Sydney on Wednesday.
“We know that the US understands the best way for Australia to support this is through diplomatic support and our resources have been prioritised in our region, the Indo-Pacific.”
Ley said the Albanese government’s response to the shipping crisis would be worrying US officials.
“Press releases don’t shoot down drones, warships do,” she said. “Our allies will be very concerned, quietly, about this response from Australia. After obfuscating, not giving the community the sense of ownership of our involvement with this important international effort that is also about keeping down fuel prices in Australia.
“Remember oil transits through the Red Sea. Our allies respectfully asked for our involvement, and that would have assisted in keeping petrol prices down.”
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said the decision was “an embarrassment”.
“We should very much so be involved in this because international prosperity and security is at stake,” Hastie told Sky News on Wednesday.
“The Middle East is a critical part of the world. We’ve seen Hamas on October 7, and now the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, create all sorts of strategic disorder. The US has asked for a modest request from us to send a maritime contribution and we can’t even meet that.”
The government has not yet given a formal response to the US request for help.
In a foreign policy speech on Tuesday, Albanese said Australia had grown into a significant middle power and that “what Australia says and does on the world stage matters to our security”.
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