Minister for Defence – Press Conference, Sydney, Monday 19 September 2016

Subjects: Operation OKRA, US Marine Rotational Force Darwin

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Okay. Thank you so much for coming up this afternoon. In response to a number of requests I thought it would be useful to make a couple of observations in relation to recent events in the Middle East.

As you're aware, on the morning of Sunday 18 September Australian time there were Coalition aircraft, which were conducting airstrikes in Eastern Syria against what was believed to be a Daesh fighting position, that in fact the Coalition had been tracking for some time. After that bombing commenced, I'm advised that Russian officials indicated to the Combined Air Operations Centre that the targets may have been Syrian military personnel. Bombing ceased immediately. Australian aircraft were among a number of international aircraft which were taking part in this Coalition operation.

Now, while Syria, as the Prime Minister has observed, remains a very complex and dynamic operating environment, I do want to make clear, as I did earlier today on radio, that Australia would never intentionally target a known Syrian military unit or actively support Daesh. The Prime Minister and I and the Acting CDF have indicated we of course offer our condolences to the families of any of those Syrian military personnel who were killed or wounded in this incident.

As the Government would expect and as you would expect, the International Coalition will review this incident thoroughly and Australia has indicated that we will of course cooperate fully with this review.

Now, I understand there have been some questions in relation to what this means, in relation to the cessation of hostilities in Syria and that process. We have indicated that we think that it is imperative to remain focused on ensuring the cessation of hostilities holds, so that we can endeavour to make progress towards finding a political solution to the conflict in Syria. Indeed we would call on all parties to respect that cessation of hostilities and for those who have influence, to work with the parties to ensure that they comply.

We have also called for the allowance of humanitarian access as swiftly as possible and we do hope that this will pave the way for the resumption of the UN facilitated peace talks.

In making the statement that Defence made yesterday, it was the view of the Acting Chief of the Defence Force and myself, that it was important to declare in response to these events, that elements of the Australian Air Task Group were involved and, as I've said, we expect to participate fully with the International Coalition review and I'm happy to answer any questions on that.

JOURNALIST:

Were Australian jets actually physically bombing at the time or were the Australian planes in a support role?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

So, rather than make commentary on the operational details at this point, we are going to participate in the review. Those matters will be examined in the review and, you know, we'll make comment accordingly as that is underway.

JOURNALIST:

What proportion of the planes that were deployed at the time were Australian in relation to Coalition?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

So, this is an International Coalition as you know. There are over 60 countries who participate in the Coalition and that’s without including (organisations of) the Arab League and the European Union. So, I'm not going to break it down piece by piece because I think it is the subject of the review - in fact, I know it is the subject of a review that the International Coalition will be holding. We will take part in that review and we'll make further public comment when that's appropriate.

JOURNALIST:

Would you describe Australia's role as a leading role in the operation?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

I'm not going to do that, no.

JOURNALIST:

What particular planes did we have in that operation?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

So, again, I'm not going to comment. You would know we have three or four different platforms participating in theMiddle East at the moment. This is all subject to the review and as those matters become public then the Government will be able to respond to questions further.

JOURNALIST:

Do you know, initially at least, what went wrong, how you could mistake 60 Syrians and what you thought was a Daesh border position as you said?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Well, I'm not going to comment on those sorts of questions. I'm not here in an operational capacity, you know that. But as I indicated, this was believed to be a Daesh fighting position which the Coalition had been tracking for some time. We make these endeavours as carefully and as strategically as we possibly can. In the general, I can make that observation but I'm not going to make comment on the particular events until we have more information.

JOURNALIST:

But in the [inaudible] problem or a communications problem?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

As I said, I'm not going to make any more comments on that until we have further information.

JOURNALIST:

The Chief of Defence and the PM recently flagged problems with Australian domestic law regarding problems that needed to be fixed in terms of having Defence Force personnel possibly facing prosecution in Australia for killings that were - that happened in the Middle East theatre of war. Does this incident expose some RAAF personnel to just that kind of legal action?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

No, it doesn't and for very good reason. This in fact has no relationship to the proposed legislative changes or the recent announcements made as part of the Prime Minister's National Security Statement. The Coalition aircraft, as I said, were conducting airstrikes against what was believed to be a Daesh fighting position that they had been tracking for some time. So, that is assessed to be a legitimate target under the laws of armed conflict, so it doesn't relate to the recent announced changes or proposed changes.

JOURNALIST:

Are Australian airstrikes now on hold during this investigation, or do they continue?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

We will continue in an appropriate, measured way with the International Coalition to do what is required, but there has been no ‘hold’ as such put on Australian activity, no.

JOURNALIST:

What about Australia's commitment to staying in the region? The Greens have already said this is more evidence we should pull out of the region. What do you say?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Well, I think the actions and the words of the Government indicate very strongly that we have no intention of doing any such thing, that our commitment is to eliminate the threat of Daesh, both in the region, to address its metastasising around the world, and to address the threat that it poses to us here in Australia. That means participating in what is a very important International Coalition to do that. The men and women of the ADF who are taking part in this activity, whether it's as part of the Air Task Group, the Building Partner Capacity Group in Taji or, indeed, the Special Operations Task Group in Baghdad itself, they are doing very effective and very important work. I've been there, I've met with them, I've met with the Iraqi leadership and seen it for myself, and the Australian Government's commitment is absolute and continuing.

JOURNALIST:

What do you say to the Assad regime saying that Australiasupports Islamic State?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Well, I would say that clearly that is not the case and that everything we have done in the past months in all of those activities that I've just spoken about to your colleague would indicate that our absolute commitment is to the elimination of Daesh, to the elimination of its metastases, and the elimination of its incarnation in any way in Australia.

JOURNALIST:

The operation was tracking the target for, you know, a period of time beforehand. How did they get it so wrong?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

As I've said, I'm not going to comment on those sorts of details, they're part of a review and we'll make public comment as those matters are appropriately examined. Thank you very much.

JOURNALIST:

Senator, a question about the US Marine rotation in Darwin, it's been affected by an inability to decide who is going to pay for their presence. It's meant to be at 2500, it's half that, Is that because there is just this impasse about who pays for it?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

In fact, I think we've made significant progress. The Secretary of Defence was in the United States, inWashington just a week ago and met with the relevant Under Secretary at the time and I think we are close to a very positive outcome. I'm very pleased about that. I've spoken with Secretary Carter about it on more than one occasion. We have seen an increase from the couple of hundred that the rotation commenced at to in excess of a thousand now and I look forward to welcoming them back in the next Australian winter into Darwin in larger numbers.

JOURNALIST:

Are you concerned that there is potential for the next president of the US to not share the commitment to having increased presence in Darwin?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Well, this is a long term commitment, it's one which the US Defense Force and the Australian Defence Force both welcome and I look forward to it continuing. Thanks everyone. Thanks everyone.