Doorstop Interview, Far North Queensland

PETER DUTTON:

It's a great honour to be back in Cairns. I want to say thank you very much to the Air Force and to the Australian Defence Force for honouring 10 men and also their descendants and family members.



This is a very special commemoration and point of reflection here in Cairns and I hope the local community gets a sense of the pride that these families have in the service of those 10 men and it allows us also to reflect on the others within the Australian Royal Air Force who have given their lives as well, over 11,000 people, and of course this year is a special year for the anniversary of the Centenary for the Royal Australian Air Force.



It is an honour to be here with the family today and the Catalina was an amazing platform that was used during the course of the war, but the 10 men here, having been on an important mission, didn't complete that mission and I think for some of the families here today there's important closure, but also recognition of the service that they've given.



QUESTION:

How important is it to remember those lost even though it's been such a long time and is still…they're still one of us?



PETER DUTTON:

I think sometimes that Australia will take for granted what we have for the peace, for our democracy, for our freedom of speech and you don't have to look too far from our shores to see other countries where people are oppressed, they're not allowed to express their own view, they're living in awe; they're living in poverty. We live in the best country in the world and the reason for that is because of people like the 10 men that we honour here today.



We should always remember that, and we should always remember the sacrifice that the families have made, the spouses, the kids that have now lost a loved one, people who are serving today around the world in our country's name. We live a safe life, and we have a bright future because of those people and we should be forever grateful.



QUESTION:

How important is it in the cooperation between Australia and Indonesia in terms of this whole recovery mission?



PETER DUTTON:

Indonesia is an incredibly important friend, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. The Prime Minister has a very close relationship with his counterpart the President. I have a very warm relationship with my counterpart, the Defence Minister and I'm very grateful that the Ambassador has been here today as well because it signifies the fact that we wouldn't have been able to recover this site, we wouldn't have been able to do the work that we've done that's resulted in today's ceremony without the support of the Indonesian Government. I'm very grateful to the Indonesian Government for facilitating the entry into Indonesia of our Defence personnel, to visit the site to recover part of the wreckage and this all wouldn't have been possible without the very close relationship that we have with the Indonesian people.



QUESTION:

Quickly on another mention, Beijing's dispatched a second high tech surveillance ship to Queensland as the Talisman Sabre exercise is going. What do we know, is that correct?



PETER DUTTON:

I can confirm that we do know of a second vessel and obviously we expect that the Chinese would conduct themselves within the rule of international law and for us Operation Talisman Sabre, a gathering of 17,000 personnel, including 8,000 Australian Defence Force members, is incredibly important. We want the interoperability with the United States to be at its absolute peak, and it is. This is a deepening of the relationship with the United States which is important, and it's also a reminder to the reality now in the Indo-Pacific.



The Chinese have invested into all of their assets. They have a production line of submarines, of frigates like we've not seen since wartime, and we need to be very conscious of that. There's been a militarisation of bases across the Pacific and elsewhere around the world and Australia needs to make sure that we do whatever we can to maintain peace in our own region. That will always be the objective of the Australian people and the Australian Government, but at the same time we need to make sure that we invest properlyinto the skills of our Australian Defence Force personnel and into the money, for example, that we're investing $270 billion over this decade into additional equipment and acquisition that will give them the equipment that they need to keep our country safe.



QUESTION:

And this isn't a concern of national security or anything, I guess as you've said it's already expected given what's happening at the moment?



PETER DUTTON:

We've seen it before in Talisman Sabre, both in 2019 and 2017. We expected the deployment of the vessel. We're surprised that there are two vessels, but obviously the Chinese have made a decision to have a greater presence and we would expect them to operate and conduct themselves within the rules of international law.



QUESTION:

Minister, Talisman Sabre, it seems as though the veil's taken off now, this is essentially about sending a message to Beijing, isn't it?



PETER DUTTON:

Well it sends a very clear message to our friends and to our foes that we have the deepest of relationships with the United States. It's 70 years this year and the depth of the relationship only continues to deepen, and we need to make sure that we are in a position to operate at a world class level with our American colleagues and that is absolutely the case. I want to pay tribute to Secretary Austin for the engagement that he's given us through Talisman Sabre and all of our other partners. It's really quite remarkable to have so many friends within our region that we've brought together to look at the capacity and the might of the relationship between the United States and Australia.



QUESTION:

There's a number of countries, seven in all, that sends a message to Beijing, doesn't it?



PETER DUTTON:

It sends a very clear message to anybody that would want to do harm to Australia and our region has changed significantly in recent years and we need to make sure that we have the greatest investment in our people and in our equipment. We maximise our capacity to keep Australia safe through a deepening of the relationship with the United States, our other Five Eyes partners and others that are contributing here to Talisman Sabre. So that's the message that we send here, and people can see the depth of the relationship, the strength of the relationship with the US which is quite a remarkable feat.

QUESTION:

Minister, you've ruled out following the US in evacuating interpreters from Afghanistan. What would need to happen in that situation for you to reconsider that?



PETER DUTTON:

I think if you look at what Australia's done to help interprets and those who have been locally engaged, every Australian should be proud of that. Now we aren't taking a blanket yes because there are some people that are being proposed that would pose a security threat to our country.



My job is to keep Australians safe and we're going to do that. We've been able to bring about 1,500 people under that program over the course of the last eight years and I know that in the last only three or four months, we've been able to bring 300 people under that program. Now there might be more that we can help through the refugee and humanitarian program, and if we need to airlift people we will do that. We've already looked at those contingencies. If people can come commercially and that's available, well, that might be the option for them, but if we need to airlift people we will, and already I think Australia's moved ahead of most partners to get those that have helped us into our country.



But we need to make sure that anybody who says we trusted somebody in 2013 and we can just take that as an assurance in 2021 – of course that doesn't apply. In the vast majority of cases people are still loyal to us, but in some cases that's not the reality and we'll deal with that as you would expect.



QUESTION:

But do you fear that in a sense the Taliban will do the vetting for you by killing some of…



PETER DUTTON:

I think Andrew if you look at what we've been able to do already, the lives that we've been able to save, the support we've been able to provide, all Australians should be very proud of that. So don't listen to a narrative that we're not providing support to interpreters. We are. But we aren't just saying a yes to every application. I'm not going to allow a situation where we compromise the security checks and have somebody coming into our country pretending to be a friend when they're not. The vast majority are our friends, they've helped us, and we are helping them.



QUESTION:

Minister, the exercises we're seeing here today and over the coming weeks, is this about ideally – not ideally – but is this about preparing for a possible conflict over Taiwan and repelling the Chinese if there was a…



PETER DUTTON:

The only objective for Australia is to have peace within our region and our partnership with America and with Japan and with the United Kingdom and with New Zealand and with others within the Indo-Pacific region should send a strong message to the Communist Party and others that we have a great capacity, we have a great deterrence and we will do whatever it takes to keep peace in our region and our relationship with the United States is a very important part of that.



QUESTION:

Minister, are you reviewing the long-term plan for the MRH? It's obviously still grounded at the moment.



PETER DUTTON:

Yes, I am.



QUESTION:

What does that involve?



PETER DUTTON:

Well it involves looking at the options of whether we continue with that platform or we discontinue that platform and go to a new helicopter. That's under consideration at the moment. Okay, thank you very much.



[ends]