The research ship that might be a spy ship, that begins as ‘research vessel’ in media questions but quickly becomes ‘spy ship’ as the hysteria increases is still making its merry way around Australia.

Mark Butler was asked about that on Nine’s breakfast show today and whether it was the ADF who was monitoring it as the PM said, or Border Force or both and says:

Our agencies obviously work very closely together. Australians will want to be assured that when there’s a ship circumnavigating Australia, that our agencies are monitoring it. Obviously, we’d prefer that ships from other countries didn’t circumnavigate our country, just as China would prefer that we don’t travel through the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, but we do, because we’re a country that supports freedom of navigation.

The host jumps in to say that ‘that’s a bit different to circumnavigating OUR ENTIRE NATION and Butler says:

Countries do this right across the world in all of the oceans. And the critical thing Australian viewers will want to know is that our agencies are watching this boat very closely, and we are. We know exactly where it is, we know where it’s heading, we know the speed at which it’s travelling. Obviously, you don’t want ministers going into operational details on TV about exactly what we’re doing, but your viewers can be very confident that our excellent agencies, our security agencies, are monitoring this boat very closely.

BUT ARE THE UNDERWATER CABLES OK?!

Butler:

Obviously, ministers aren’t going to go into the details of exactly what our agencies are doing. They don’t report to the Health Minister, you won’t be surprised to hear either.  These are details that we don’t broadcast over the TV. Your viewers know we’ve got excellent security agencies, and they’re doing their job in monitoring a boat that is circumnavigating our country.

(That’s code for, I am not part of the inner workings, but protecting the underwater communication cables is one of the priorities and if the shit had hit the fan, I would have heard, so things are OK)