♬ 
Day 18 cont 
“Dutton told host #PatriciaKarvelas (#ABCAustralia) that if “negotiations were taking place, then surely Australia would have been consulted”, and if not, that would have been a “catastrophic failure”.
Karvelas pushed Dutton on whether the president had announced this, or whether there were any public statements on the issue. Dutton said:
There’s commentary I have seen reported from the #Indonesian spokesperson. That’s obviously come from the administration. There are reports of negotiations or discussions that have taken place between Russia and Indonesia. Pushing again, #Karvelas asks, “Where have you seen the Indonesian president confirm this? Aren’t you verballing him? He hasn’t talked publicly about it”.
Dutton digs in:
There’s comment that’s come out of the administration, out of the #Prabowo administration ... Dutton says it a third time, that there are “public reports”:
There’s public reports in relation to the claim that’s been made. There’s been a lot of activity between #Russia and #China and #Indonesia, et cetera. That’s a matter of public record.”
If you can’t win and you have no foreign policy, make 
up about our political allies (Indonesia).
#AusPol / #PeterDutton / #propaganda / #slogans / #ForeignPolicy / #LNP / #Liberal / #Nationals <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/apr/16/australia-election-2025-live-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-coalition-labor-housing-cost-of-living-bandt-greens-ntwnfb?page=with%3Ablock-67fecd2e8f08bcf9ff482418#block-67fecd2e8f08bcf9ff482418>
