Members of the Australian Ukrainian community hold placards as they hold a rally in Sydney July 19, 2014, demanding that Russian President Vladimir Putin not be allowed to attend the G20 Leaders Summit in November.
Members of the Australian Ukrainian community hold placards as they hold a rally in Sydney July 19, 2014, demanding that Russian President Vladimir Putin not be allowed to attend the G20 Leaders Summit in November. REUTERS/David Gray REUTERS/David Gray

Australian leaders are bickering over the attendance of Russian President Vladimir Putin into the G20 summit scheduled to happen in Brisbane next month.

Bill Shorten, Opposition Leader, deplored Australia's move to allow Mr Putin attend the summit, much more come and enter into his country. He criticised Prime Minister Tony Abbott's decision as well as the latter's thoughts that seem to say Mr Putin's "coming here isn't an issue Australians are concerned about."

Mr Abbott said Mr Putin will be able to attend and join the Brisbane G20 Summit because that was the agreement of the international gathering that operates by consensus. He noted Australia alone has no right to say yes or no to individual members of the G20. "Russia is a member of the G20 and as such, we're obliged to accept the Russian leader in this country."

The government believed the G20 members allowed Russia to participate because it could be the only time they can nail Mr Putin to openly discuss what happened in July. "I think there will be some full and frank dialogue with President Putin at that meeting," Treasurer Joe Hockey told ABC television on Sunday.

The squabble over the attendance of the Russian leader into the international event came from the alleged involvement of Mr Putin's country in the July 17 downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine. That global aviation accident killed 298 lives, 38 of which were Australians.

Campbell Newman, Queensland Premier, although abhors the idea of Mr Putin stepping into his state, nonetheless thinks that the Russian leader's attendance has been planned so that G20 leaders could express their anger over the Malaysia Airlines tragedy. "I know that people around that G20 table will be making it perfectly clear to him," the AAP quoted him telling reporters in Brisbane.

Mr Abbot is also believed to schedule a talk with Mr Putin. He pointed out he will extract "an assurance" from the Russian president that he will do everything he can to ensure that now, at least, justice is done.

Mr Abbott said that he personally believes Mr Putin didn't want nor plan to implicate the downed Malaysia Airlines into its tensions with Ukraine. "But obviously Russian policy has brought about a situation that caused this atrocity to take place."