Interview with Ray Hadley, Radio 2GB-4BC

RAY HADLEY: 

Every Thursday we speak with the Minister for Defence and Member for Dickson Peter Dutton. He’s online from Brisbane. Minister good morning. 

PETER DUTTON: 

Good morning Ray. 

RAY HADLEY: 

Well, we’re entering another week of lockdown, announced yesterday that it would extend beyond this Friday to next Friday, and you’ve got your own problems of course in Queensland at the moment as well. 

PETER DUTTON: 

Yes, it’s tough. It’s going to continue on for a long period of time. As we know with this virus, it’s just too contagious and we’re going to have to live with it, I think, for many, many years. So getting the vaccination rollout completed, which we’re well on – despite what some people read in the papers or some of the journos write – the vaccination rollout continues and the most vulnerable are the priority and let’s get things open as quickly as we can and let businesses get back to doing what they do – employ people and let people get back to their jobs as soon as possible – but we shouldn’t kid ourselves; this virus is going to be with us for very many years. 

RAY HADLEY: 

See, one of the things I noted – and I spoke about it yesterday – the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson elected if the last 48 hours to say, “Right, July 19, we’re opening everything up and we’ll live with the virus.” But he says that on the basis that 86 per cent or I think 84 per cent have had the first jab and over 64 per cent have had the second jab, both jabs; and I guess he’s saying to people with the jab you may get the virus, but you won’t get as crook as you would if you didn’t have the jab. So, he’s throwing down the gauntlet to people to simply get the jab to protect themselves. 

PETER DUTTON: 

Well that’s right, but don’t forget though, in a country like the United Kingdom, the number of people that have obviously died from the virus, but the number of people that have contracted it and survived, those people have got antibodies, they’ve now been vaccinated. It’s a very different scenario. 

So I think you’re right though; the principle in the not too distant future when we work through the phases that the Prime Minister has organised with the state Premiers and Chief Ministers, we live with it because people have the vaccination, they contract the virus and at that stage they don’t get sick or die in the numbers that we saw in Europe or the United States or Asia as we’re seeing in Indonesia and in the Middle East at the moment. That’s the reality. 

If people have had the vaccination, then it doesn’t mean they can’t get the virus, but it just means, as you point out, that it’s not as severe case and we don’t have the admissions to ICU, we don’t have people on ventilators and that’s when you start to treat it more like a flu than the way in which we’re approaching it at the moment. 

So we transition through these different phases – and that will be I think, you know, a big shift for the country – but the United Kingdom is able to be where they are I think largely in part because of the significant spread that they had in the first place and people have got the antibodies or they’ve moved through in a way that we haven’t. We just haven’t had that mass spread of it, and that’s been the case in the UK. 

RAY HADLEY: 

Okay. Your former colleague Julia Banks has spent the last week promoting a new book, as is her want, making some fairly serious accusations about sexism and toxic behaviour within your party. But I mean it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that this is a person that supported the former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, threw the toys out of the cot when he got rolled and hasn’t been happy ever since. Now, several of your female colleagues have come out saying it’s complete rubbish; she’s bitter and she’s twisted, she backed the wrong horse, she backed Malcolm Turnbull. 

PETER DUTTON: 

Well Ray, I mean you’re right in terms of Julia…has been and I presume still is very good friends with both Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop. I had very little to do with Julia during her time in Parliament, and there are others that have made comments as to the voracity of her claims. As you say, there’s a book promotion going on, and I don’t really seek to add to it. 

RAY HADLEY: 

All right then. AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw spoke to me earlier this week about this Syrian foreign fighter supporter Adam Brookman. Now, he was most concerned that the Victorian Government because of COVID had let him out early and he wanted the court to make sure that they were able to find out where he was, what he was doing and how often he was doing it. Now, the court on Wednesday did that, but the Victorian Government, the Andrews Government, thought it was a great idea to let him out because of COVID. I can’t believe it. 

PETER DUTTON: 

It’s unbelievable. I mean I’ve seen some very bad things come out of the justice system in Victoria, I must say, and this is just the latest. It’s unacceptable. I think the Premier needs to properly explain to people what on earth has happened here and how it could happen and whether or not it could be repeated. It just doesn’t meet community standard Ray. 

You get these cases where people are released in circumstances where they shouldn’t, they go off and commit further crimes; nobody’s held accountable for it and yet on all of the facts, it was clearly obvious that the person shouldn’t have been released, that they should have stayed behind bars because of the threat that they posed to the community, and all of that is ignored. So I’d like to see the Premier come out and give a proper explanation, an apology and a commitment that it won’t happen again. 

RAY HADLEY: 

Yeah, bizarre. I see a big announcement from your Department through the week about $600 million being spent on Chinook, the helicopter fleet. It’s happened rather quickly. It’s all done and dusted in a few months, and I think the first two have arrived from the United States of America. 

PETER DUTTON: 

Yeah they have. The Chinooks just have an incredible capacity and they’ve been around for a long time, but they’re such a reliable platform. We use them constantly. So, in obviously the Middle East, they’ve been used in Afghanistan and Iraq as well, but also for humanitarian assistance, they’re used during the floods, during the bushfires, those sort of natural disaster events. The Chinooks have got an incredible capacity to lift people, but all sorts of equipment as well and they’re just reliable. So we had an opportunity to buy an additional four out of the United States. We’ve done that, and they’re really, I think one of the most significant assets and reliable pieces of equipment that we’ve got. 

They’ll be well utilised and it’s a lot of money that’s involved in the acquisition of this equipment, but you just never know what disaster or what conflict is around the corner – so it’s important that they have the right equipment – and I think we’ve made, you know, a good decision here and yes, it’s been delivered in a timely way, which I think is one of the key criteria as well. 

RAY HADLEY: 

Okay. As always, thanks for your time. We’ll talk next week. 

PETER DUTTON: 

Thanks, Ray. See you, mate. 

[ends]