Australia ‘concerned’ over reports US may have leaked documents to boost Donald Trump’s Wuhan lab claims
- An Australian news report is suspected of containing material leaked by the US embassy in Canberra regarding the unproven claims Covid-19 came from a Wuhan lab
- Former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr says such a ‘brazen intervention’ would be widely seen as political interference if carried out by China
“The Americans pushing the lab theory kind of discredits that initiative,” said Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute. “It prejudges it, which in a way contaminates the idea that any inquiry supported by the US can be independent.”
The SMH report, which cited multiple unnamed officials, said there were “widespread suspicions” within the Australian government that a dossier, revealed in an earlier article by a rival newspaper group, had been leaked by the US embassy to help push a “narrative in the Australian media that could be counter to the beliefs and interests of its hosts”.
The dossier appeared to match the description of a research report that was based on public information, including news reports, according to the SMH, but “contained no information that was generated from intelligence gathering”.
The US embassy in Canberra did not respond to a request for comment from the South China Morning Post.
