Transcript – Minister for Defence – ABC Queensland Country Hour

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

The much anticipated master plan for the expansion of military bases in Central and North Queensland will be released today. Landholders are seeking reassurance it will deliver on the Government's promise to overturn plans for forced buybacks, as the Department of Defence forges ahead with a $2.2 billion joint training agreement with the Singaporean Government. Marise Payne is the Minister for Defence. She's with us on the Queensland Country Hour today. Good afternoon, minister.

MARISE PAYNE:

Good afternoon, Charlie, how are you?

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

I'm well. It's been a very difficult and uncertain time, though, for landholders who were initially earmarked for compulsory acquisition. What does the release of this master plan mean for those families?

MARISE PAYNE:

Well, what we are able to indicate today is, having completed the master planning process, we can confirm that both of the training areas as they currently stand are at capacity, in terms of their current use and utility. So we do need to expand the training area. But what I announced on 7 February remains the case, and that is land will only be purchased from willing sellers.

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

Doesn't that leave a huge hole in your expansion plans, though?

MARISE PAYNE:

Well, no, we've done- really cracked the whip, if you like, on the master planning process to ensure that we are able to do what we need to do in what will indeed be a reduced scope, in terms of the training area. So we will also be using less land than had previously- than was in the initial planning process. And really, that is the purpose of a planning process, to review and consider what's needed and what might be possible. Having done that, we can confirm that there will be no forcing of sale to any landowner. Only willing sellers will be able to engage with Defence because we don't need to go elsewhere. We have in both training terms and in viability of the training terms, been able to come to that conclusion.

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

So how detailed will the lines on the map of that footprint be, in terms of delivering the certainty that landholders clearly are seeking?

MARISE PAYNE:

Well, when you say certainty, the certainty we deliver is absolutely in relation to forced sales. There will be none. That is the first thing. The second is that, in terms of the processes that we now have underway, it's very important for us to be able to protect the interests of those individual landholders who wish to engage with Defence. I think that is something that has to be recognised. We also have privacy considerations around the location of individual sellers and commercial in confidence aspects to those discussions. But Queenslanders and those who have been concerned elsewhere in relation to this matter can be absolutely assured that nobody who does not wish to engage in this process, that does not wish to sell their land will be required to do so.

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

How might this practically work, if you have an unwilling seller next door to a willing seller?

MARISE PAYNE:

That's been part of the process that we have undertaken, because individual landowners have made their views quite clear, so we have a reasonable idea of the sort of options we have had available to us. We've done our master planning based on that, so those individuals who made their case very strongly that they did not wish to be part of this process, did not wish to be part of the acquisition process, their case is clear. We know that that land is not available. We know what land should be available, and we work within that.

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

What compromises has your department had to make to achieve this, given the brief that they set out to achieve?

MARISE PAYNE:

What we have done is to drive the master planning process to ensure that, whether it is through more compact area, whether it is changing the rate of training activity, whether it is through using simulations, we have what we need to adequately train members of the ADF and we have what we need for Singapore to participate in the military training initiative as well.

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

What other alternatives might the department be looking at, now that compulsory acquisition is off the table once and for all?

MARISE PAYNE:

Alternatives, as in?

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

I'm aware that there has been proposals, for example, further inland of Townsville at Pentland. And also, I know some Federal Members have been quite vocal about suggesting areas as far afield as Weipa and also the Northern Territory.

MARISE PAYNE:

Indeed. Now, we have a number of requirements for how you develop a training facility. The terrain has to be appropriate for the use of the ADF, the soils and the hydrology have to be appropriate for the use of the ADF, the area itself, access points, the ability to use it across the year, and those sorts of factors. We take all of those into account as we are considering what’s appropriate. RAAF Base Scherger, for example, is quite isolated; the terrain is not the sort that's needed for this sort of training. The area around Weipa indeed has been enthusiastically offered, you're quite right, but we have to work with what suits our training needs, what suits the sorts of mechanised vehicles we’re using, what suits modern weaponry and so on. That is the basis of the selection of Shoalwater Bay and Townsville. If we do need to go further afield, then it was suggested to us, I think late last year, that the areas around Pentland and Greenvale might be options for Defence. We took up those suggestions for consideration. That is still a matter that we're reviewing, and I will wait for advice from Army on that.

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

We're hearing today from the Defence Minister Marise Payne, who has today released the much anticipated master plan for expansion of the military training areas, both at Shoalwater Bay and further north at the Townsville field training areas. Minister, it does beg the question, if this is possible now, why wasn't it possible before?

MARISE PAYNE:

Well, I think the whole planning process, the initial planning process, was actually a very broad approach. And certainly there have been some people who did not welcome that, I understand that. I said, I think to you when we last spoke, that I thought it was very important for Defence to have been an upfront participant in this activity, not to, you know, sneak around in the background and not be very public about what they were doing with members of the community. That is something which I think adds to the consultation, adds to the transparency. They'll be able to disagree with that, I absolutely acknowledge. But I've seen the alternative, I've seen what happened when governments in previous administrations did it in an entirely different way, which was to make all their plans, not tell anyone they were doing it, and then publish an advertisement in a newspaper in South Australia in relation to the acquisition of almost 160,000 hectares of land. We decided to do it in a much more open and transparent way.

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

When you came to Rockhampton four weeks ago and gave your department the deadline that it's now met for this master plan, many landholders at that point had hoped that they would hear directly when this document was going to be released, yet they are going to learn about it in the media today. Why has it been handled that way?

MARISE PAYNE:

Well, I think what you will actually find is that officials within the department are making phone calls today and are connecting with various members of the community that have been in contact with them over this period of consultation since last year. I think that's important. But I do also think that it is important to place it in the public arena, to talk to people like you, so that for those who may be further afield, they're able to hear the updates as well.

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

Well, we certainly appreciate that opportunity. Finally, Minister, where to from here for those residents and also for your department?

MARISE PAYNE:

So we will have senior officials from Defence in both areas - the Shoalwater Bay area and the Townsville Field Training Area - next week able to with members of the local community in terms of issues they may want to raise. Those members of the community and those landholders who are interested in engaging with Defence will be able to have face-to-face discussions. What Defence now needs to do is to put together this master planning process with the socio-economic impact study, which KPMG is doing, and that is, Charlie, by the way, still underway as part of this process. Put those together- the outcomes together, and make an initial business case which they present to Government. I think given some of the media, some of the commentary which was around during the consultation process, it is really important to emphasis that no land has been compulsorily acquired, there has been no forced sales, there will be no forced sales, and we will be engaged with vendors in the community who are willing to engage with Defence and we will be acquiring a much smaller area for the purposes of training, whether it’s through, as I said to you before, additional and different engineering works, changing the scheduling of training, or use of simulations, we will make sure that that is fit for purpose for the Australian Defence Force, the land that we acquire will be owned by the Australian Government, it will be used by the Australian Defence Force, and it will also support the Military Training Initiative with Singapore.

CHARLIE MCKILLOP:

Defence Minister Marise Payne, thanks for being with us today on the Queensland Country Hour, and we will keep in touch as this important process continues.

MARISE PAYNE:

Thanks very much, Charlie.