PM says his conversation with the Russian president at the G20 summit next month will be ‘the toughest conversation of all’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Tony Abbott says he will “shirtfront” Vladimir Putin over the downing of MH17, claiming his conversation with the Russian president at the G20 would be “the toughest conversation of all”.

The prime minister resorted to the Australian Rules football term for roughing up an opponent to describe his approach to Putin’s presence in the country next month.

“I am going to shirtfront Mr Putin – you bet I am – I am going to be saying to Mr Putin Australians were murdered, they were murdered by Russian backed rebels,” Abbott said.

The government has confirmed Putin will be attending the world summit in Brisbane after G20 countries agreed “by consensus” that Russia should not be sidelined.

It is alleged Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine in July by Russian-backed rebels, killing all 298 passengers and crew, including 38 Australian citizens and residents.

Abbott said while Australia was the temporary president of the G20, it could not make unilateral decisions on behalf of the body.

“It has to be by consensus and the G20 consensus is that Russia should come,” Abbott said. “I think there will be a lot of tough conversations with Russia and I suspect the conversation I have with Mr Putin will be the toughest conversation of all.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, acknowledged Australia had no control over the invitation list but took a swipe at the government for “laying out the red carpet”. He also accused Putin of knowing “more about what happened with MH17 than he’s let on”.

“It’s an international conference, not a conference run by Australia, so if Putin has the arrogance to turn up to visit a nation whose nationals died in this plane crash, he can,” Shorten said.

“But I’m like most Australians, I wish that Putin would at least show enough conscience to be able to not come to Australia, because he’s rubbing our faces in it.

“Also what I happen to think is that when you deal with international bullies, the way you do it isn’t by laying out the red carpet.”

Paul Guard, whose parents, Roger and Jill Guard, were killed in the MH17 crash, said little would be achieved by Putin staying away.

“It wouldn’t achieve much by uninviting him because dialogue is the way forward and I hope the G20 might be a good platform on which to strongly voice our disapproval of his government’s policy and approach to Ukraine,” Guard told Guardian Australia.

“It might be uncomfortable for people to shake hands with him [but] at the end of the day, what do you achieve by not inviting someone like that? It would only play to his domestic politics.”