Television Interview, Sky News Afternoon Agenda

SUBJECTS: Assassination attempt on Former President Trump, $250 million package to Ukraine, SYPAQ drones supplying the ADF and Ukraine. 

TOM CONNELL, HOST: Joining me now for more on this, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy. Thanks for your time, what was your reaction when you saw this news?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY: I was appalled. Absolutely appalling. Violence has no role in the democratic process full stop. In the United States, in Australia, or anywhere around the world and obviously, we're very relieved that Former President Trump was relatively unharmed and was able to continue with his activities. 

It has no place and we're seeing more extreme language and unfortunately, that extremism often can flow into other impacts. We've seen murders of members of parliament in the United Kingdom. We have seen this assassination attempt. It’s time for moderation and a time for people to moderate and temper what they're saying and doing.

CONNELL: Interesting to note, he's pledged in a report in the past couple of hours to give a speech not attacking Joe Biden at the convention, but about unity. Good, mature response from Donald Trump, which I guess isn't always expected.

MINISTER CONROY: Well, it's not for me to commentate on the actual US Presidential Campaign, but I think the messages that were conveyed by President Biden in the aftermath and Prime Minister Albanese in his remarks are absolutely right. We need to take the heat out of political debate. We are seeing it in the debate in this country, around the Middle East conflict. 

For example, my own electorate office has been attacked. I had four people wearing balaclavas take to the windows in my office with crowbars at 4:00 am one morning and we have seen what obviously happened to Josh Burns’ office. We need to respect everyone else's political views. We need to moderate our language, and we need to be very aware of any extremism and combat it.

CONNELL: Do you feel that we are heading closer towards an environment in which our leaders and politicians are not really advised to be as exposed? I don't know if that's the right word, but welcomed to mingle with members of the public?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I think it's one of the great things about our democracy that members of parliament, Ministers can go down to their shops and pick up things, or, like I did on the weekend, take my kids to a local park or throw the footy around. 

That's a great part of our democracy, it's a real strength of Australian democracy, where the people and politicians are close to each other. We're the same - Politicians are people, and we need to stay in touch and be grounded and you've seen that dehumanising language. 

I think, obviously, language that was subjected to Julia Gillard was probably one of the most intense recent examples of that, but you do see it break out occasionally as well, where people are accused of being complicit in genocide, which is complete rubbish, that dehumanising attacks make it easier for extremism to spread and that corrodes democracy.

CONNELL: Does it give you any sort of pause for thought as well around attacks, that the person who never works around it might get pretty willing in parliament, but just to pause and think, well, let's not go the person.

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I'd like to think most political leaders don't engage in political attacks and attack the substance. 

Obviously, it's willing in the chamber but importantly, most people are able to park that once they leave the debating floor and engage in other activities, such as for example, playing touch footy with members of the opposite party, but, we should always be very conscious of our language and not get too personal to reflect on people's positions and policy differences rather than saying other things. 

Most people get into politics for the right reasons. They're patriots, we just have different views about how to improve the country.

CONNELL: Okay, I've asked you a few times around assistance for Ukraine. It would be remiss of me not to mention the $250 million package, drones for Ukraine and their war against the invasion from Russia. Why was this specific assistance selected?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, this is responding to the requests of the Ukrainian Government. We've been very focused on supporting their needs with practical assistance. 

This $250 million goes to drones; it goes to boots and other personal equipment for soldiers. It goes to artillery, ammunition, air to ground munitions and anti-air missiles. 

These are all things that Ukraine desperately need and so we're privileged to support them with the announcement from the deputy Prime Minister and this builds on recent announcements. 

For example, when Richard Marles visited the region only a couple of months back. In fact, I was visiting SYPAQ in Melbourne today to make a major drone announcement for the Australian Defence Force and they've been supplying drones to Ukraine for a couple of years now, funded by the Australian Government, so, this is really important to support them against Russian aggression that's going on right now in Europe.

CONNELL: If in the future, the US did pull support or dramatically pare it back, Ukraine feels as though it would be a catastrophic blow to its defence. Do you think western nations would be willing to dip into their budgets enough to stop that from happening?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I'm not going to get into hypotheticals about future policies or potential policies in the United States but what I can say is there is a huge resolve in Europe and the United States to support Ukraine against Russian aggression. 

I represented Australia at the Munich Security Conference a year and a half back, and I was struck by the range of politicians from different parties united in supporting Ukraine and united in investing in their own defence, in their own military to combat Russian aggression. 

I met with politicians from the German Greens party, for example, who are a far cry from the Australian Greens, who support strong defence spending because they're seeing what's happening in the world and they know that a strong deterrence impact of a strong military is critical to preserving democracy around the world.

CONNELL: Pat Conroy, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

MINISTER CONROY: Thanks, Tom.

ENDS