(Following the crash of the Sea King helicopter on the weekend) … Australian Defence Minister Robert Hill says the Navy’s Sea King helicopters are safe, and could be used for another 10 years. The bodies of the service men and women who were killed attempting to help Indonesians deal with last week’s earthquake will be flown to Sydney on an RAAF Hercules later today. The Defence Minister has been speaking to Louise Yaxley about the Sea King crash and about concerns expressed by the Labor leader that Australia’s troops aboard may be overstretched.

No, not overstretched, but certainly I agree they have had a heavy workload. We’re very conscious of that. We tend, for example, to rotate our forces more often within an operation than many other countries. We certainly and most constantly remember that it’s important that we don’t overtax our people.

Defence experts Hugh Smith and Derek Woolner have said that the workload in recent years means personnel have had less time for training. How do you respond to that?

Well in many ways the operational experience is the best training of all.

In regard to the Sea Kings, the Australia Defence Association says it’s not that they’re old or unsafe, it’s that newer generation helicopters are even safer.

Well the Sea King is a very capable and safe aircraft and in our instances they are very well maintained, and they are operated to the highest professional standards. They’ve had a good record. I think the last Sea King that we lost through mechanical issues for example was some 20 years ago.

The Defence Association gives a powerful example, saying that a Black Hawk crashed last year and no-one was killed. They say a chopper two generations newer just has better crash worthiness standards and that can translate to lives. Should we be upgrading the Sea Kings?

You can’t equate accidents like that, because every accident presents a different set of circumstances, and you can point to accidents involving Black Hawks – fortunately not Australian Black Hawks - where the result has been very different. So we accept a responsibility to provide good quality equipment for the ADF. As you know we have a very large investment in the continual upgrade of capability in terms of our platforms, and that will continue. But we will never provide to the ADF equipment that we believe in any way is unsafe, and we certainly have confidence in the Sea Kings and the experts have great confidence in them as well.

Although Canada is looking to phase them out. Is it something that you’ll now reconsider?

They’re intended to operate through to the 2010 – 2015 period. I’ll await further advice from the experts, but basically we are committed to providing the ADF with good quality equipment. That is a very basic commitment that we make to our forces.

Minister, can you tell us if there will be a ceremony when the bodies are returned to Australia?

Yes, there certainly will be a repatriation ceremony. I only wish I could be there myself. I’m in Asia at the moment on counter-terrorism issues which are also important to the Australian national security interest, but I am seeing if I could curtail the visits this week and get back to visit the Kanimbla. I would like to visit our forces on the Kanimbla who I think have also had a very rough time from this experience.

Defence Minister Robert Hill speaking to Louise Yaxley.