Doorstop Interview, Canberra

SUBJECTS: Defence satellite communications; AUKUS; Defence estate. 

JOURNALIST: You cancelled JP9102, which was set to be vital for the integrated force and said the government now wants a multi-orbit system. Will that include a network of GEO-stationary satellites which are used by our key partners, or will the backbone be a Starlink style system? And what's the timeline for delivery?

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: We've made a decision, we haven't cancelled the program. What we've done is made a decision to re-scope it, to take into account, really, developments in technology, so that we have a more distributed solution to future Defence communications which is more resilient, which does pick up the kind of technology that we are seeing being used around the world, particularly over Ukraine now. And in the process, we address the threats to technology where we do see capabilities which enable satellites to literally be shot out of the sky. In progressing this, we believe we can do this in a more resilient way, and therefore a more capable way, in a more timely way, and a more cost effective way.

JOURNALIST: You said before that AUKUS is here and it's staying. Just tell us, why do you think that, notwithstanding the US election and whoever wins, it's too big to fail?

MARLES: Well, AUKUS is in the strategic benefit and interest of Australia, the United States and the UK. That's the fundamental point here. And that will continue to be the case at the end of this week as it is at the beginning. And we're really clear, in all the engagement we've had in the United States, that whoever wins the United States election this week understands that. And it's not a guess. We've got a voting record. When you look at the way in which Democrats, Republicans, Trump Republicans voted in the Congress at the end of last year in support of AUKUS, it was across the political spectrum. So we do have a sense of confidence that going forward, this is a program that will be supported in the United States, as it will in the UK, as it will here.

JOURNALIST: Caroline Kennedy said she would like to see the creation of an AUKUS visa. Is that something the governments are working on? Is that something you'd like to see?

MARLES: Well, certainly we need to be looking at ways in which we can have an easier facilitated movement of people between our three countries who are working on this program. We are working with the governments of the US and the UK to look at how that can be done. I mean, when you when you look at it right now, we've got Australian submariners who are in both the US and UK, we've got Australian industry personnel, those with trades, those with tertiary qualifications, who are again working in the US and UK. So having an ease of movement of people across our three countries is going to be really important to deliver this.

JOURNALIST: Are you sitting on the findings of the Defence Estate review because you don't want–because selling off Defence and closing Defence bases is electorally unpopular? 

MARLES: No. Look, the Defence Estate review was a really, has been a really important piece of work. It is part of what I would describe as the foundational thinking that we have sought to do in Defence during the course of this term that you have seen with the Defence Strategic Review, the Surface Fleet Review, and the like. We need to be making sure that our Defence estate is fully focused on what our Defence Force needs to achieve. You see that in the Defence Strategic Review, in the focus that there is in its findings around improving the capability of our northern bases. The Defence Estate review has been a fantastic piece of work. It does have implications in terms of personnel and as I said in the Parliament six weeks ago, I think, what we will be doing is evaluating all of that, looking at those decisions thoroughly, particularly with personnel implications, and giving a government response to it during the course of next year. 

ENDS