Penny Wong refuses to deny Australian sailors were on board US submarine that sank Iranian warship

The Foreign Minister is refusing to say whether Australian personnel were on board a US submarine which sank an Iranian warship overnight, insisting the Government does not discuss deployments for “operational and security reasons”.

Penny Wong has faced sustained questioning in Parliament over whether Australia is providing any assistance to the war against Iran, including this week’s revelations in The Nightly about the visit of two US surveillance aircraft to an airbase outside Perth.

During Question Time Greens Senator David Shoebridge asked Senator Wong about Wednesday’s deadly torpedo strike on Iran’s Iris Dena frigate by a US submarine operating in international waters off the coast of Sri Lanka.

“The most recent data from the government said there were between 50 to 100 Australian personnel currently embedded on US nuclear powered attack submarines in the region,” Senator Shoebridge told Parliament.

“Were any Australian personnel on this US submarine when it sank the Iranian frigate and left the survivors to drown?” the Greens Senator then demanded to know.

Senator Wong initially responded that “US submarine operations are a matter for the United States” but then clarified that the government could not publicly confirm or deny whether Royal Australian Navy personnel were involved.

“As I have told you before in a number of other contexts, for operational and security reasons, we don’t disclose specific information regarding Australian personnel,” Senator Wong said.

Military commentators have speculated online that the Guam based USS Minnesota, which last year completed a maintenance visit to Perth’s Garden Island naval base, was likely to be the submarine which sank the frigate, but this has not been officially verified.

Under Australia’s ambitious AUKUS endeavour, growing numbers of Australian personnel are being trained in the United States on how to operate nuclear-powered submarines, including being deployed on Virginia-class boats.

In a follow up question, Senator Shoebridge also quizzed the Foreign Minister about Monday’s “unexpected” arrival of two US P-8 Poseidon aircraft to RAAF Base Pearce north of Perth, after flying across the Indian Ocean from the Diego Garcia military base.

Describing Diego Garcia as a “main base for US operations in their illegal war against Iran”, Senator Shoebridge demanded to know “were these planes used in the bombing of Iran?”

Again, the Foreign Minister did not directly respond to the question but instead read from a prepared government statement that noted: “US aircraft have been visiting Australia for decades, undertaking a range of activities and tasks.”

“This is a long-standing feature of our cooperation with the United States, and it occurs in accordance with well understood policies and procedures and with full respect for Australian sovereignty,” she added.

“I have already made that clear as has the Prime Minister that Australia do not participate in the strikes on Iran,” Senator Wong added.

Earlier in the day when asked if Australia had been asked to deploy any assets for the US led war on Iran, or if the secretive intelligence base at Pine Gap was being used, the Foreign Minister responded: “we don’t comment on that facility”. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Senator Shoebridge described the Albanese government’s refusal to confirm any details of the visiting US military aircraft as a “betrayal of basic transparency”.

“This is a remarkable thing about Australia. This wall of secrecy is put around every single military operation. Yet in the United States, there is far greater transparency.”

On Wednesday flight tracking data confirmed the two visiting US P-8A Poseidon aircraft flew out of Western Australia’s RAAF Base Pearce in the afternoon, heading north beyond Indonesia.