Radio Interview, ABC Perth

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The Hon Richard Marles MP

Deputy Prime Minister

Minister for Defence

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dpm.media@defence.gov.au

02 6277 7800

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24 July 2024

SUBJECTS: Paris Olympics; Australia’s contribution to the Combined Maritime Force; ARPANSA low level waste license; Energy. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS, HOST: Well, for the next three days, Perth is taking centre stage as the host of the Indian Ocean Defence and Security Conference. Richard Marles is at the conference right now. He is the Defence Minister and at the moment, actually the Acting Prime Minister. Good morning and thank you for joining me.

RICHARD MARLES, ACTING PRIME MINISTER: It's a pleasure to be speaking to you this morning. How are you?

MITSOPOULOS: I'm well, thank you. If I could just start with those attacks in Paris. Now, France's terror alert is at its highest level, with several suspected extremist plots thwarted in the last week. Our athletes have now been told not to wear their uniforms in public, and there have also been attacks on two Australian media workers and also pretty shocking reports of an Australian woman being gang raped. Are Australians in Paris safe, and are there any changes to security needed?

MARLES: Well, obviously, the reports out of Paris are concerning and what happened to the young woman is just appalling and our thoughts are very much with her. Everyone is really looking forward to the Olympics. I'm sure the Olympics are going to be a great success, but it's really important that Australians who are in Paris are obviously exercising the kind of caution that you would when you're overseas and are very much looking at what our authorities are saying. Our agencies are saying and are following the updates on smart traveller. In terms of those who are looking after our athletes, I'm sure that they will be doing all of that and making sure that our athletes are safe.

MITSOPOULOS: Are you comfortable with the level of security? Is there anything the Australian Government needs to do?

MARLES: Well, we continually monitor this and, through smart traveller, provide advice to Australians abroad and that'll be happening in relation to Australians who are in Paris right now. And so I think it is important that Australians who are there are following updates to smart traveller around how they do manage their own circumstances. I mean, clearly, people need to exercise all the caution that you would overseas. Look, what we have seen happen is absolutely appalling, but I'm sure going forward, all the precautions will be taken in relation to athletes. And as I say, Australians who are there should be following the updates to smart traveller.

MITSOPOULOS: Minister, can you confirm that Australia will take command of a maritime task force in the Middle East to protect crucial shipping lanes there?

MARLES: We are active participants in the Combined Maritime Force, as we are in the Combined Task Force 153, which is a task force which is dedicated to protecting shipping in the Red Sea. And we've been active participants in that over a considerable period of time, in terms of the Combined Maritime Force, and in relation to CTF 153 we've been active participants in that since its inception. It's not for me to start articulating the decisions of the command structure of the CTF 153. All I can really say is that we are very much active participants in it and we will work in with the decisions that are made in relation to that command structure.

MITSOPOULOS: You don't seem to be denying an ABC report that planning is underway for our Australian Navy personnel to lead that operation dedicated to protecting those shipping lanes.

MARLES: Well, I'm really not trying to preempt a decision which actually lies elsewhere. I mean, the command structure of the CTF 153 is made through the Combined Maritime Force which is a multinational effort. It's not an Australian decision. What we are is active participants within that task force and will continue to be.

MITSOPOULOS. Are there any plans to deploy any warships for this mission?

MARLES: Well, we've been really clear about that in that we've not had any plans to deploy a ship to the Red Sea. Our Navy is very focused on our region, the Indo-Pacific. There is an enormous amount of work to be done there in terms of asserting the global rules-based order, which in the context of naval operations is about the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, freedom of navigation. We've really never been busier in our own part of the world and that is very much our focus.

MITSOPOULOS: Defence Minister Richard Marles is my guest this morning on 720 ABC radio, Perth and WA. He is at the moment also the Acting Prime Minister and in Perth for a conference. Let's look at a few issues closer to home and certainly here in Perth, there's been a lot of discussion about the radioactive waste facility that you want to build on Garden Island as part of the AUKUS deal, a temporary one, I understand, but what reassurances can you give that that will be 100% safe? Because there is a lot of local concern about this facility.

MARLES: Well, it will be safe, but I think perhaps the starting point here is to just give a sense of context. What we're talking about being generated here is low level nuclear waste that happens in hospitals right now, for example. We're often talking about cleaning equipment, gloves and rags and the like. Now, it is important that that sort of material which is generated is carefully managed and it will be at Garden Island. But we are not talking about something in that sense which is new. Every hospital around Australia which engages in nuclear medicine has exactly this issue that they deal with. And there is a whole lot of protocols which are worked through in terms of dealing with that low level radioactive waste, and that's all we're talking about being generated at Garden Island, and so it'll be managed in a very similar way.

MITSOPOULOS: A company called Tellus Holdings already has a facility at Sandy Ridge near Kalgoorlie. Why not use that facility, given it's already been built?

MARLES: Well, that facility does exist in WA and has been used in relation to low level nuclear waste, as I understand it, that's generated in Western Australia. I mean, we're working with the Western Australian government, with regulators around how we do this and we will manage this very carefully. But I think that the most important reassurance that we can give people living in Perth, living in Rockingham, near HMAS Stirling is that what we are talking about here is low level nuclear waste, which is the kind of thing which is generated in hospitals right across the country now, right across Perth now. And so there's a well worn path here. This is not something which is new. And this will be managed completely safely.

MITSOPOULOS: The Garden Island facility, as I mentioned, is only meant to be a temporary one. Can you just define temporary? I mean, how long before you find a permanent site? And is West Australia in the mix for that permanent facility?

MARLES: Well, if we're talking about a permanent facility for high level nuclear waste, and we have articulated the fact that we will need to do that and when we talk about that, that's really a very different question. That is how we ultimately dispose of the nuclear reactors that are used within the nuclear-powered submarines that we have. We are going to articulate the process by which a site will be determined in Australia and we've made clear that we will give articulation to that process shortly. But I think the important point to understand in respect of that is that the first of those nuclear reactors that we will need to dispose of, in all likelihood, will be disposed of in the early 2050s. So, this is a long way down the path. You know, we've got the time to determine where such a site will be. The one point we've made clear right now is that it will be on the Defence estate, be it the current or the future Defence estate, given the timeframe that we are talking about. So, it will be on Defence land. You know, there's a range of criteria that will need to be brought to bear in respect of choosing a site in terms of away from populations, geological stability, that kind of thing. And obviously, there's a whole range of consultations that would need to take place across communities with First Nations groups and the like. But there is a long time before we need to have that established and the process will–

MITSOPOULOS: How long are we talking? Five years? One year? Two years? People want certainty as well.

MARLES: Well, in terms of establishing a facility for high level nuclear waste that is many, many years down the track, because we are not going to be in a position of needing to dispose of any high level nuclear waste until the early 2050s. And it's really important that we don't conflate that question with the question of low level nuclear waste, which is like cleaning equipment when people are cleaning an existing nuclear-powered submarine, which is, in that sense, really no different to the sort of nuclear waste which is currently generated through our hospitals when we're engaging in nuclear medicine. And so that is a very different question. That sort of waste is managed across our communities in Australia each and every day. That is something with which we are very familiar, that is not new and we will work through all of that. And that's all that's being spoken about right now in terms of Garden Island, a high level nuclear waste facility, which is most definitely new, will need to be worked through, but we have the time to work it through because we don't need to do any of that disposal until the early 2050s.

MITSOPOULOS: Finally, Richard Marles. I just want to touch on nuclear power because earlier this morning I was speaking to the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and it's found that that small modular reactors are unlikely to be ready in Australia until the 2040s, but did say they could potentially form part of our future energy mix and contribute to baseload power or provide dispatchable power in a high renewables grid. Does that change your mind at all about the viability of nuclear power again moving beyond 2050?

MARLES: Well, I don't think it does, in the sense that what we're talking about is highly developmental and experimental technology which has not been used in a commercial setting anywhere. And what we need to be doing is generating solutions to reducing carbon emissions right now. I mean, this is being put forward by the Coalition in really the most ridiculous thought bubble in terms of answering the question around how we reduce our emissions through to 2050 such that we can be net zero by 2050. Now, there's no prospect that this technology is going to make any meaningful contribution to that. And that's before you get to the fact that walking down that path is to walk down the path of the single most expensive power source in the world today. Now, every Australian is facing the real question of pressures in relation to energy bills. It's obviously why we've done a whole lot of measures, not least of which is providing a $300 rebate on energy bills from July. But that speaks to the fact that we need to be doing what we can to reduce power costs, not increase them. And what the Coalition is doing in the face of that is to walk down the single most expensive path which exists in the world today. It is economic insanity and it is a thought bubble which has just not been articulated to the Australian people and I can well understand why there is a deep sense of scepticism across the Australian community about these proposals.

MITSOPOULOS: Leave it there. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

MARLES: Thanks for having me.

ENDS

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