PM Says US Not Involved in Pacific Policing Plans, Questions Journalist’s Ethics for Releasing Recording

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has suggested that a New Zealand journalist needs to “think about their own ethics” after recording and publishing what he says was a private conversation between himself and a U.S. official. Albanese was in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, this week for the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting where he spoke to his “good mate” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell. During the forum, the Pacific Policing Initiative (PPI) was signed off on, which puts Australia in charge of a police force in the Pacific that could respond to major incidents. In the Aug. 28 conversation, Albanese refers to getting the PPI through as a “cracker,” saying it would make “such a difference.”...