Minister for Defence – ABC AM, Monday, 19 September 2016

Subjects: Operation OKRA, Syrian airstrike, intelligence services review

JOURNALIST:

Marise Payne, we know Australian aircraft were involved in these strikes. Can you provide any more information about what involvement they had? Are we talking about bombers or support aircraft?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Michael, at this stage as you’d understand the US-led international coalition is going to be reviewing this incident, so I am not going to go into the detail of the very complex activity that’s involved in multiple aircraft from multiple nations. I don’t think engaging in speculation on that helps, so we’re going to participate fully in that review process and ensure that we provide whatever information that is required.

JOURNALIST:

Clearly it was an intelligence failure of some sort, though, wasn’t it?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

As I understand it the coalition aircraft were conducting airstrikes in eastern Syria, as we know, against what was believed to be a Daesh fighting position that in fact they had been tracking for some time. So it remains to be seen what led to this particular outcome. Of course we regret the loss of life and have extended our deep sympathies to the families of those members of the Syrian defence force involved but discussing what led to it and the action itself at this point, without a proper review, I think is premature.

JOURNALIST:

Sure. Clearly, though as you said, they thought they were targeting Islamic State fighters. There’s speculation around that that intelligence came from the Russians. Is that correct?

MINISTER FROR DEFENCE:

Again, Michael, you put me in a difficult position. I am not going to comment or speculate on “speculation” but what I can make very clear, and I know the Prime Minister has reinforced, is that Australia would never intentionally, knowingly target a known Syrian military unit or in any way, shape or form, actively support Daesh. Our mission is in fact to remove the threat of Daesh, not support it in any way.

JOURNALIST:

As you said, there will be a US review of the incident. Is that enough? I note Andrew Wilkie has called for us to have our own review of the incident. Are we going to?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Well, we’ll let the coalition review get under way and see what comes of that. I think that given as I’ve said, that this is a multinational force, we have multiple aircraft participating, it’s only fair to allow the processes that are in place to take their course and then consider our position.

JOURNALIST:

OK, clearly we were involved in some way. If this investigation casts more light on that or not enough light on that are we prepared to have our own investigation?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Well let’s contemplate those options when we come to that point.

JOURNALIST:

This incident comes just a couple of months after we announced broader rules of engagement for the operation of our air operations in this region. Would Australian aircraft have been involved in an operation like this if those changes hadn’t been put in place?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

In fact Michael my advice is that the changes had no impact on Australia’s engagement in this particular activity. What the coalition aircraft were doing was conducting airstrikes against what was believed to be a Daesh fighting position that as I said, the coalition had been tracking for some time. That is a legitimate target under the Rules of Armed Conflict and it actually has no relationship to the proposed legislative changes.

JOURNALIST:

What do you think the wider implications are this are because Russia has responded by calling an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council? Do you think it will damage the already strained relationships?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Well I’ll leave others to comment on the international relationships there but what is very important, I think, is that we remain focused on the actual objective we have in this particular engagement. That is the defeat of Daesh in Iraq and Syria and that should be our focus. I would hope to see that be the case amongst all the participating nations.

JOURNALIST:

You must be concerned, everyone must be concerned that something like this would have an impact on the ceasefire, I mean it’s less than a week old now?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Well it is very important, I think, to remain focused on the capacity of the ceasefire to lead to progress in this area and we certainly have been very supportive of that. We indicated previously that the agreement itself wouldn’t change our air operations in Syria given our area of operations is in the east. That remains the case and we will continue to do that in accordance with our existing targeting authorities and procedures.

JOURNALIST:

On that broader battle, there’s going to be a review of Australia’s intelligence agencies, the first since 2011. What’s likely to be the focus this time?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Michael, of course the Defence agencies will participate fully in that review, the Australian Signals Directorate, the Defence Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Geospatial Intelligence Organisation. I think one of the focuses will almost certainly go to changes in technology which are happening extremely rapidly and which elevate the challenges in terms of intelligence collection and analysis, even higher than they have been previously. That is something which our agencies and their senior leadership comment upon regularly. It’s a matter of concern to the Government. So that will certainly be a part of the discussion.

JOURNALIST:

OK, Marise Payne, we’ll leave it there. Thanks very much for joining us.

DEFENCE MINISTER:

Thank you very much, Michael.