Defence force not told of Chinese navy live fire drills

PM Anthony Albanese explains how he was notified about Chinese warships in the Tasman Sea. Video by AAP

Transcript

00:00I've been in contact by phone of course and have been discussing these issues with Prime Minister

00:08Deluxe. But just being on the timing of it, I understand it's come out in estimates this

00:11morning that there was no notification from China until planes were flying over.

00:15Air services was told first. Is that correct? The New Zealand taskforce was aware at the same time.

00:27There were two means. New Zealand notified the Australian Defence Force,

00:34which is what we were cooperating on. But was Air Services telling Defence

00:39before the New Zealand taskforce was? Well, I've just answered the question, which is that

00:47around the same time there were two areas of notification. One was from the New Zealand

00:57vessels, so we're tailing, we're cooperating, we've been monitoring

01:01the vessels in the area by both sea and by air. So that occurred and at the same time

01:08through the channels that occurred when something like this is occurring,

01:13Air Services got notified as well.