Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused a reporter of taping a “private conversation” after he was caught in a hot-mic moment joking with a senior US official.

Video of the chat with US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga on Wednesday was posted online by Radio New Zealand.

The pair talked about the Pacific policing plan for which Australia is providing $400 million, with Albanese suggesting the US could “go us halvies on the cost if you like”.

“We had a cracker today getting the Pacific Policing Initiative through. It’s so important. It will make such a difference,” Albanese can be heard saying.

Campbell replies: “It’s great. I talked with Kevin [Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to the US] about it. We were going to do something … but we did not. So you’ve given you the whole lane. Take the lane.”

“You can go us halvies on the cost if you like. It will only cost you a bit,” Albanese replied.

“Well we had a cracker today getting the Pacific Policing Initiative through,” @AlboMP tells @kurtcampbel on sidelines of @piflm53 @RNZPacific @kelvinfiji pic.twitter.com/sP9YNqhlSR

— Lydia Lewis (@LydiaLewisRNZ) August 28, 2024

On Thursday, Albanese slammed the journalist who filmed and shared the chat while also downplaying what was said. 

“The video is what it is. It is up to them, whoever did that, to think about their own ethics when it comes to journalism,” he said.

“It was a private conversation. It was a jovial conversation and a friendly one. It is what it is.

“People try and read something into it, you must be pretty bored, frankly. You must be pretty bored.”

Albanese said journalists should identify themselves when recording politicians.

The video came after the forum announced support for the Pacific Policing Initiative.

The scheme will include a co-ordination hub in Brisbane and “centres of excellence” in Papua New Guinea and up to three further places through the Pacific.

Australia is spending $400 million to set up the regional police force, which will have the capacity to deploy across the region during strife or major events.

The plan is not uncontentious. Melanesian officials, including Solomon Islands diplomat Colin Beck and Papua New Guinean official Leonard Louma have both offered guarded criticism.

The policing initiative is widely seen as an attempt to keep Chinese security and police out of the region under the forum’s “by Pacific, for Pacific” mantra.

The RNZ video is significant as it suggests Australia is acting on Pacific policing either in co-ordination with the US or after US efforts failed.

Nations across the Pacific hold different geopolitical positions – from firm allies of the US, like Australia – to holding warmer relations with Beijing – like the Solomon Islands.

Albanese denied the US would help Australia foot the bill for the scheme.

“Kurt Campbell’s a mate of mine. It’s us having a chat,” he said.

Campbell is US President Joe Biden’s point man on the Asia-Pacific region and is viewed as an architect of AUKUS, the trilateral pact with the US and UK that will result in Australia obtaining nuclear-powered submarines.

Albanese denied Campbell was referring to a US-backed police force or that Rudd talked him down.

“He didn’t say that. He didn’t say that,” he said.

“He said he’d had a discussion with Kevin about it … chill out people.”

The journalist was accredited and allowed to be in the forum where the video was taken, but Albanese challenged her ethics for recording a “private conversation”.

“It’s up to them, to whoever did that, to think about their own ethics when it comes to journalism,” he said.

“People are coming up behind, trying to try to tape conversations … that’s up to people to argue themselves that’s ethical.

“I myself, if I were a journalist, I would not do that.”

On the second day of his visit to Tonga, Albanese will fly to the northern island of Vava’u for a forum leaders’ retreat.

He will join the leaders of 17 forum nations in an all-day closed-door retreat to discuss the region’s thorniest issues, including New Caledonia and climate change.

Albanese said a forum fact-finding mission to Noumea – planned before the summit but scotched by colonial power France – would go ahead later this month after talks in Tonga.

-with AAP