Minister for Defence - Interview with Radio 6PR, Western Australia

JOURNALIST:

Senator David Johnston is the Defence Minister and is in town today, good morning to you.

MINISTER:

Steve good morning to you.

JOURNALIST:

This search has been called off today, for this plane that is in our waters as the weather is pretty horrendous.

MINISTER:

Well we have a cold front moving through over the next 12 hours, 40 to 50 knot winds, a four metre swell, so HMAS Success has gone about 120 km south to get out of that, and flying conditions have been declared unsafe.

So I am going up to Pearce today to see all the pilots, the Chinese, Japanese, New Zealanders and Australians of course to congratulate them of the work they have put in for more than two weeks in flying some quite incredible hours looking for the resolution of this mystery, and I am very honoured to go up and talk to them.

JOURNALIST:

Whose search is it, is Australia running the search? Is it coordinated by us?

MINISTER:

It is coordinated by us, AMSA have got the lead on this, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, but we are obviously working in close partnership with the Malaysians, and organising all the logistics around getting the aircraft on the scene for as many hours as we possibly can. Now Basil, we should realise that our maritime surveillance aircraft, the AP 3 Orion, four hours to get out there, two hours on station, and four hours to get home. This is probably one of the most remote areas on the planet, and only really Australians and may I say Western Australians understand the logistical nightmare of some of these distances, I mean we are further away from Brisbane.

JOURNALIST:

David I know you have a busy morning, but with the relatives coming over, there is talk in regards to bringing them over, would they have an easier passage into the country if that was going to be the case?

MINISTER:

Well you have to talk to Scott Morrison about that but I just know that the Prime Minister is very concerned to make sure that we extend every possible courtesy to these poor devils, they had an emotional roller coaster over the past two weeks, and my heart goes out to them, remember there are six Australians on board this aircraft, and so we will do everything we can to give them some semblance of closure given that we know, given the Inmarsat data that has come out overnight, is a very serious disaster.

JOURNALIST:

Senator just very briefly if some debris is loaded onto a ship where does that debris go? Does it come here to Fremantle, does it go somewhere else, and who does it belong to?

MINISTER:

That’s a really good question I am not sure but I would presume it would first come to Fremantle because the vessels would need to be refuelled and AMSA will determine what happens there, in cooperation with the Malaysians and the international air safety authorities.

JOURNALIST:

It’s just a terrible tragedy I think it’s the only way you can describe it.

MINISTER:

That’s right.

JOURNALIST:

One that we really didn’t want to know but at least the relatives have some closure, David thanks for your time this morning, take care.

MINISTER:

Thanks guys, anytime.