PM praises public servants for handling 'clumsy attempt' by Chinese officials

A former anchor for Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, Sky News host Cheng Lei spent three years detained in China on murky spying accusations before she was released in October following advocacy by Australia.

She said on Monday the Chinese officials appeared to have been trying to avoid having her filmed in the same room as Mr Li, out of concern it would be "a bad look" - but that their behaviour was "a bad look".

Asked about the encounter on Tuesday morning, Mr Albanese praised Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet staff for their handling of the incident.

"There was a clumsy attempt, really, to just stand in between where the cameras were and Cheng Lei," the Prime Minister told Nova Perth.

"The Australian officials did the right thing and intervened."

Former Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo weighed in on Tuesday afternoon, telling the ABC the PM&C staff should be "awarded public service medals on the spot for their grace, their resolve, their courage and their judgement".

On Monday, PM&C staff were observed intervening on behalf of Ms Cheng and repeatedly asking a Chinese embassy official to move, a request that was refused.

"Two things struck me as being concerning," Mr Pezzullo, who is set to be stripped of his Order of Australia medal after being sacked amid allegations of seeking political influence, said.

"The spectacle in the main committee room, and I've spent many hours of my life - perhaps too many hours of my life - fronting Senate estimates in that room and other parliamentary committees.

"To have that democratic space desecrated in the way that it was by those Chinese officials - who no doubt were acting under instructions, trying to block the cutaway shots of Cheng Lei - was frankly disgraceful."

"To come to the heart of our democracy, and desecrate it like that, well we have completely different norms. I would say norms that are universally better norms, where you have contestability, you have press inquiry, you have press freedom, to seek to block that was just a disgrace.

Mr Albanese was criticised for his initial reaction to the incident, when he told reporters he had not seen it happen, while also stating that China was willing to grant visas to Australian journalists.

He told ABC Perth radio on Tuesday morning that it concerned him to see an Australian journalist who had spent time in a Chinese jail targeted by China for doing her job on Australian soil.

"Oh, it does. And our officials have followed up with the Chinese embassy to express our concern," he said.

"When you look at the footage, it was a pretty clumsy attempt, frankly by a couple of people to stand in between where the cameras were, and where Cheng Lei was sitting.

"Australian officials intervened, as they should have, to ask the Chinese officials who were there at the press conference to move."

Mr Albanese said Ms Cheng had visited him in his Parliament House office after the government secured her release.

"She's a very decent human being and a very professional journalist," he said.

"And there should be no impediments to Australian journalists going about their job and we've made that clear to Chinese Embassy."

Asked about the "balancing act" of conducting diplomacy with Australia's largest trading partner while resisting China's expansionism and foreign interference, Mr Albanese said he approached the relationship by "being straightforward".

"By raising the issues that we have with China in a deliberate, but a clear way," he told Nova.

"There's no point, you know, shaking your fist."

He said Australia and China had "different values and different political systems" as evidenced by the "pretty ham-fisted" attempt to block Cheng, and the clashes between human rights protesters and a pro-China contingent outside Parliament House on Monday.

"We had a lot of pro-Chinese people who were demonstrating their support for the visit of the premier," Mr Albanese said.

"They are very proud. They're proud of the rise of China. And the extraordinary economic development which of course, has made an enormous contribution ... But at the same time, there was a demonstration about human rights in China."