Interview with Karl Stefanovic, Today Show

KARL STEFANOVIC:

Well the increasingly turbulent situation in Ukraine has gone from bad to worse with US intelligence this morning suggesting Vladimir Putin has already given the order to invade.

Defence Minister Pete Dutton joins us now from Brisbane. Minister, good morning to you.

Now, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned Europe could face the biggest war since 1945. I mean, has this trigger already been pulled?

PETER DUTTON:

It’s hard to see how it hasn’t Karl. Troops continue to build up, the presence of the ships in the Black Sea, the cyberattacks, the false flag activity – it’s all pointing in one direction, sadly, tragically, because we just don’t want to see women and children as the victims of another war, but it seems that that’s the path that Vladimir Putin is set on embarking. We just need to continue to put international pressure on them to stop, but it seems inevitable that Putin goes into Ukraine, which is a tragedy for Ukraine and a knock-on effect around the world, as Alan Joyce is just pointing out. So, I hope that there’s an eleventh-hour miracle, but there’s no sign of one yet.

KARL STEFANOVIC:

So, you seriously think in the coming days we could be at war. You’ve committed Australian cyber-spies to help train Ukrainians against hack attacks from Russia. Is that all we’re going to be doing at this point?

PETER DUTTON:

Karl, it’s obviously a long, long way away from Australia and the European nations, led by the United Kingdom, and obviously a lot of input by the US as well, they’ve really been leading the charge here and they have responsibility through NATO and through the European Union etc

So, there’s a lot of work that they’ve been doing, and some of them have committed troops to the NATO force. Australia is not committing troops. We’ve been clear about that - we’re not sending troops to the Ukraine - but there are ways which we can provide assistance and there may be some cyber activities that we’re able to support, it may be the case that we’re able to send, you know, some support otherwise to the Ukraine, but we’ll assess that as it unfolds. But it’s a precarious situation, and nobody wants to see war anywhere, not in our region, not in the Ukraine. Let’s hope there’s an eleventh-hour reprieve.

KARL STEFANOVIC:

In the meantime, you’ve blasted China over their act of aggression, firing a military-grade laser at an RAAF aircraft. Can you give us a little bit more information on that and how Australia will respond to that?

PETER DUTTON:

Sure Karl. So last Thursday there were two ships, two PLA Navy ships, that were heading south through the Arafura Sea and across the Torres Strait and then into the Coral Sea. We had a surveillance plane because these two ships were in our zone, and it was a normal practice - China would do exactly the same if we were traversing ships through their waters - and there was a laser shot up to the P8, which is quite an aggressive act. This is not a laser that you buy down at the shop, this is an industrial-scale technique, really a military technique, it’s a military-grade equipment. It can disrupt the radars, it can in certain circumstances blind the crew, so it was a very dangerous act and I think we’re better off to speak frankly about it because this is the sort of activity that we’re seeing obviously in our seas. Japan is dealing with it every day in the East China Sea, and there are other acts of aggression around the globe.

KARL STEFANOVIC:

So you have asked for a please explain. They haven’t exactly had an open dialogue with our country for some time.

PETER DUTTON:

Well that’s the case and we want that open dialogue, we want a good relationship, but Australia’s not going to be bullied, we are not going to walk away from our obligations to the rule of law, our international obligations, and all we ask is that China play by the same rules, and at the moment not just with Australia, but a dozen other countries, this is their course of conduct, their behaviour…

KARL STEFANOVIC:

…have you tried to reach out to…

PETER DUTTON:

…we’ve had about 10 years where people haven’t spoken about it.

KARL STEFANOVIC:

Have you tried to reach out to…

PETER DUTTON:

…I will write to my – sorry…I will write to my counterpart and there’s been approaches by Defence into their counterparts in Beijing and we’ll see what sort of response, if any, we get.

KARL STEFANOVIC:

You’ve got yourself in a bit of hot water, haven’t you, trying to tie Labor with China in terms of China wanting Labor to win the federal election. Do you regret those comments?

PETER DUTTON:

No, not at all Karl. I think there’s no other conclusion to be drawn, frankly. I think there’s clearly when you look at the activities of Labor when they were last in government, they are weak on national security. They pulled money out of our national security agencies, including Defence and ASIO, the Federal Police, etc. They watered down every bit of legislation, national security legislation, that’s gone to the joint committee.

The Labor Party saw that as an opportunity to weaken that legislation, and they did and we rely on them to pass it through the Senate, so that’s the reality of what we have to accept.

Anthony Albanese has been leading the call as the leader of the extreme left within the Labor Party for a number of years to break down our border protections, and I just think if you can’t control our borders, then you can’t deal with the bullies in our region, including China.

KARL STEFANOVIC:

Okay. Good to talk to you, Pete. Thank you. We’ll talk to you very soon. Appreciate it.

PETER DUTTON:

Thanks Karl.

[END]