Marles-Hegseth meeting: Labor heavyweight Wayne Swan blames ‘unpredictable’ US for murkiness
The “unpredictable” US government is to blame for murkiness around Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles’ trip to Washington this week, a Labor heavyweight says.
Mr Marles was in the US for high-level talks with Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
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But whether Mr Marles, who is also defence minister, had a formal meeting with Mr Hegseth came into question after a Pentagon spokesperson denied one took place and said they had a “happenstance encounter”.
The Pentagon later U-turned, saying they did meet at the White House and that it was “co-ordinated in advance”.
Former Labor deputy prime minister Wayne Swan on Friday dismissed the focus on the meeting as a “beat up”.
“He went there for a meeting and he met the (state secretary) and he met the vice president, and that’s what he went for,” Mr Swan said, adding he did not “understand a lot of the coverage of this issue”.
“It’s not the problem of the Australian government that elements of the US government are somewhat unpredictable.”
More to come.
Originally published as Labor heavyweight blames ‘unpredictable’ US for Marles meet murkiness
