‘Halvies’: Albo caught out on hot mic

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been filmed joking with a senior US diplomat to “go halvies” on the freshly unveiled $400m Pacific Policing Initiative (PPI).

The Australia-funded policing scheme was endorsed on Wednesday by Pacific leaders attending the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).

Among the initiative’s key elements are multi-country police units, four training centres across the region and a Brisbane-based co-ordination hub.

Mr Albanese was casually chatting to US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on the sidelines of the PIF when he made the comments, giving a behind-the-scenes look at international diplomacy.

“Well, we had a cracker today getting the Pacific Policing Initiative through,” the Prime Minister said.

“It’s so important. It will make such a difference.”

Mr Campbell praised the PPI, calling it “fantastic” and “great”.

“I talked with Kevin about it,” he said, referring to Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd.

“So you know we were going to do something (but) he asked us not to, so we did not.

“We’ve given you the lane. So take the lane.”

“You can go us halvies on the cost if you like,” Mr Albanese quipped back with a laugh, prompting a chuckle from the US official.

New Zealand journalist Lydia Lewis recorded the video on the plenary floor and posted it on social media site X.

Mr Albanese told reporters on Thursday morning that Mr Campbell “is a mate of mine,” and the video simply showed them “having a chat”.

“The video is what it is,” he said.

But the Prime Minister went on to attack Ms Lewis, calling into question her ethics.

“It’s up to them, to whoever did that, to think about their own ethics,” he said, adding that “it was a private conversation, it was a jovial conversation”.

“People try and read something into it, you must be pretty bored, frankly.”

Mr Albanese ignored a reporter’s point that the conversation took place on the pleneary floor and accused Ms Lewis of “coming up behind” him, even though she was stood in front of him the whole time she was filming.

“If people are coming up behind, trying to trying to tape conversations that’s up to people to argue themselves that that’s ethical,” he said.

“I myself, were I a journalist, would not do that, and I know that most of you wouldn’t either.”

The PPI is a major strategic win for Canberra as it navigates Beijing increasing assertiveness in the region.

Pacific leaders have hailed the initiative as “Pacific-led”, saying that Pacific problems should be solved in-house in a thinly veiled shot at Beijing, which has been trying to woo Pacific nations into a similar deal.

Last year, China signed a policing pact with the Solomon Islands.

Uniformed Chinese police have also popped up in Kiribati, with both Kirabati and Chinese officials keeping it under wraps until Reuters exposed it in February.

At his press conference, Mr Albanese flatly denied Mr Campbell said the US was preparing a similar project to the PPI, but that Washington held off at the request of Mr Rudd.

“He didn’t say that, he didn’t say that. He did not say that,” Mr Albanese said.

Speaking to Sky News later, Defence Minister Richard Marles also dismissed the suggestion, but said the US was deeply engaged in the Pacific “across a whole range of areas.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been caught on a hot mic asking a US diplomat to “go halvies” on a $400 million policing initiative at the Pacific Islands Forum. Mr Albanese has questioned the ethics of the New Zealand journalist who published the story, saying they should have never been published or even rebroadcast. The prime minister spent the first day of the Pacific Island Forum securing support for the initiative before the incident with US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell. The Australian-funded initiative will be based in Brisbane with four centres across the Pacific. The plan will create a multi-national police force of around 200 officers who can be deployed across the region in times of crisis.