In the end, it was just too close for comfort.
After almost a year of diplomatic jawboning, administrative manoeuvring and an embarrassing Federal Court loss that found the National Capital Authority guilty of illegal eviction, prime minister Anthony Albanese has personally intervened to stop Russia from building its new embassy next to Parliament House.
Nobody is speaking publicly about whether or not ‘Havana Syndrome’ — the mystery illness afflicting around 1,000 US diplomatic and embassy staff that some believe is caused by Russian-directed energy weapons — is on the minds of Australian and Five Eyes security agencies, but it seems a little distance now goes a long way.
In an unabashed swing at the Putin regime, on Thursday emergency legislation to halt the new build on Forster Crescent Yarralumla was rammed through both parliamentary houses unopposed, drawing a line under the matter and confining Russia’s diplomats to their current Griffith compound, which is a repurposed hostel.
There are several reasons the government wants to halt the build and take back the land — some of them political — but Albanese has now broken cover that the new location presented national security issues, especially its proximity to Parliament House, which, in recent years, has had special secure, security-classified meeting and briefing rooms added.
“The government has received very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a new Russian presence so close to Parliament House. We are acting quickly to ensure the lease site does not become a formal diplomatic presence. The Government condemns Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine,” Albanese said.
It’s a little unclear why and how the location was initially approved for the Russians by the NCA in the first place, save to say that the organisation occasionally has an intriguing approach to placemaking, like its fixation with creating a seaplane service on Lake Burley Griffin.
Announcing the lease termination, Albanese was flanked by minister for home affairs Clare O’Neil, who similarly pounded home security risks as the trigger for the legislation to get around the NCA’s somewhat unedifying loss in court.
“The Bill is straightforward — it identifies a specific piece of land in Canberra which currently has a lease agreement between the National Capital Authority and the Russian Federation, and the Bill terminates that lease agreement,” O’Neil said.
“The principal problem with the proposed second Russian Embassy in Canberra is its location. This location sits directly adjacent to Parliament House. The Government has received clear national security advice that this would be a threat to our national security, and that is why the Government is acting decisively today to bring this longstanding matter to a close.”
Speaking to the block of land itself, O’Neil said the government would “work through the options for this very important [and] specific piece of land” and that a decision had been made that the block “will not be used for a future diplomatic presence.”
There are also other neighbours nearby who will likely be relieved that Moscow’s Australian agents are staying in Griffith and not coming to Forster Crescent.
One of them is the well-heeled (no blue denim please) Commonwealth Club, an invitation-only venue that is a favoured lunch and dinner spot for the political class and upper echelons of the bureaucracy because of its discrete location and penchant for privacy.
A number of former senior politicians are known to stay at the club when in Canberra because of its proximity to Parliament House.
A Russian presence on the street would have provided a useful observation post for the comings and goings of the club’s guests — not exactly a selling point.
So how real and serious is the threat of Havana Syndrome?
Real enough, it seems, for the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency to start re-examining suspicious cases of so-called ‘anomalous health incidents’ according to the publication Politico, whose sources cite suspected GRU (Russian military intelligence) involvement.
And there is a hot war in Ukraine that Australia is sending equipment to aid the fight to repel the Russian invasion. Friends, close. Others, not so much.
READ MORE:
Neighbourhood threat: why there’s little appetite for a new Canberra Russian embassy
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