7NEWS Australia published this video item, entitled “Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his trip to the Ukraine war zone was not a ‘holiday’ | 7NEWS” – below is their description.
After touring Sydney’s flood zone, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised people who attempted to label his trip to the Ukraine war zone and NATO as a ‘holiday.’
“Some people apparently didn’t get the memo about the new politics. New politics is about getting things done, and achieving outcomes, and working together in the interest of the Australian public. That’s my objective. It’s something that I progressed in the first meeting of the National Cabinet. It’s something that you’ve seen on display with the cooperation between the Commonwealth and New South Wales over recent days. I do note that there was a very specific criticism that said that I didn’t pick up the phone to Premier Perrottet. I travelled from Saturday from France into Ukraine. It was literally planes, trains, automobiles. As a matter of national security and keeping not just myself but the special forces personnel who travelled with me as well as media representatives. We didn’t have any electronic equipment. No phones, no internet, no communication with outside. That was a matter of keeping us safe, but also keeping safe President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people that we were meeting with. There is a war going on. Apparently that should have been dismissed. There is a war going that that has implications for Australia and for our national security and our safety as well. And when I returned from there, there was a train journey in and out of Ukraine from Poland, from a location that for reasons of national security, weren’t foreshadowed in advance, then I immediately spoke to Premier Perrottet. I spoke to Minister Watt. I spoke to the Acting Prime Minister, Richard Marles MP. And made sure that every support was being offered. At that point in time, we had ADF personnel had already been deployed and offered quicker than has ever occurred in any natural disaster in Australian history. We were acting. We are not a one-person show. I was fulfilling a responsibility that I believe that I had of travelling to Ukraine. To compare that with a holiday is, I just find beyond contempt, frankly. And it says a lot about the people who made those comments, and I thank Premier Perrottet for his response when asked about it. That’s what people want to see. People want to see people working together in the national interest, in the interests of our people. That’s what we’ve been doing here today and that’s what I’ll continue to do, not just with Dom, but with premiers and chief ministers around the country” – Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
7NEWS Australia YouTube Channel
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