Television Interview, ABC News Breakfast

SUBJECTS: Middle East Conflict; Australia-United States Relationship; AUKUS; 

HOST, JAMES GLENDAY: Well, joining us now from Canberra is the Acting Prime Minister, Richard Marles. So, Richard, good morning and welcome back to News Breakfast.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, RICHARD MARLES: Good morning James, how are you?

GLENDAY: I'm very well, thank you. First, we should probably start in the Middle East. I mean, how concerned should Australians be as they wake up to this escalating situation this morning?

MARLES: Well, the government is very concerned because as you just said, we are worried about the escalatory nature of this. And in this moment, you know, our call to both parties is to focus on diplomacy and dialogue. In making that call, we are joining voices from the United States, from the United Kingdom, Germany, France and many other countries around the world which are also urging the parties to engage in restraint and to focus on diplomacy and dialogue precisely because we are worried about this escalating into a wider conflict.

GLENDAY: We're already seeing warnings that this could drive up fuel prices here. Are you expecting this conflict to have a broader effect on the Australian economy?

MARLES: Well, obviously that depends a bit on, on how long the conflict goes and the way in which it plays out. But you're right to focus on fuel. And already we have seen over the course of the last few days the global oil price go up and it's the inevitable consequence of, of any conflict. We saw this with the war in Ukraine, that does disrupt global supply chains and that has an economic impact around the world. So, we are very much monitoring that closely to see what the ultimate impact is here, in Australia. But that's going to be a function of how long this continues. But again, it is part of why we are very much urging in this moment for both parties to engage in diplomacy and dialogue.

GLENDAY: Your government has been very clear that your priority is the Asia Pacific region, not the Middle East. Given how unstable parts of the world appear to be at the moment, does it strengthen the argument that Australia needs to start spending substantially more on defence, maybe around 3 per cent of GDP?

MARLES: Well, I mean, the point I'd firstly make is that we have been spending more on defence. We have engaged in the last couple of years in the biggest peacetime increase in defence spending in Australia's history. And that has been a function of the very complex strategic landscape that we face. In many ways, the threatening strategic landscape that we face. You're also right that the Defence Strategic Review called for a focus on the Indo Pacific, on our immediate environment, on the threats that we face here. That needs to be done in an intelligent way, meaning there are events which will happen elsewhere in the world which can absolutely have an impact on the Indo Pacific, be that in relation to the global economy. But we very much see the war in Ukraine as having an impact on the strategic landscape in the Indo Pacific and hence our engagement there. So, we do have an eye to the way the world impacts our region, but we are very focused on our region.

GLENDAY: Just want to take you back to that question though. Quite a lot of people are calling for a bigger increase in defence spending than your government has currently committed to. You don't want to go into targets but are you going to be when you're meeting with your US colleagues, be putting more money on the table as part of a negotiating strategy?

MARLES: Well, what we'll do and what the Prime Minister has made clear we'll do is assess our strategic landscape, what are our needs, what's our national interest and then resource it. I mean he's been making, made it very clear that, that we will resource what our defence needs are going forward and that will be through a very clear eyed assessment of what we face and therefore what kind of a defence force we need to build. And that is how we've been going about it for the last three years. I mean what we inherited obviously was a defence establishment which wasn't in great shape from the Coalition. What we've given to it is strategic clarity. We have reprioritised tens of billions of dollars of expenditure but what we've also done is increased spending on defence in order to resource our needs, and we'll continue the process of assessing that and where there is a need resourcing it.

GLENDAY: The Prime Minister is going to meet Donald Trump in Canada in the coming days. Given the review of AUKUS announced last week, are you hopeful that the US President will give a full throated endorsement of AUKUS?

MARLES: Well, they'll talk about AUKUS no doubt, as I'm sure they will talk about tariffs and other matters going on in the world today. I mean we welcome the review from the United States. It's a very natural step for an incoming government-

GLENDAY: Sure. Sorry to interrupt Minister, but wouldn't an endorsement by the President put this speculation around the future of AUKUS to bed and prove that the Trump administration is actually committed to it?

MARLES: Well, in all the conversations we've had with the United States administration, there has been an understanding of the strategic importance of AUKUS and really positive statements in relation to it. And the review is a step that we welcome. It is very consistent with what happened in the United Kingdom. It's consistent with what we did ourselves when we came to government and we will work with the US government in relation to that review and we'll continue to work with the US government in putting in place AUKUS.

GLENDAY: Just before I let you go, should Australia be developing a backup plan just in case AUKUS falls over or something happens to it, if not now, into the future?

MARLES: Well, you know I've made this point a few times. We need to actually stick to the plan we've got. What we saw under the former government was a constant changing of plan and approach when it came to what our future submarine capability will be. Given that it takes 20 plus years to establish a new submarine capability, the decision to consistently shift to Plan B's is not a decision to pursue Plan B, it's a decision not to do it at all. Because if you keep chopping and changing, you will never actually build what you need to. You know, we're focused on the plan in front of us, we are focused on delivering it. That is the way we get a successor to the Collins class submarine. And you only need to look at the map and to understand that as a trading island nation, really dependent upon our sea lines of communication, we are a country which needs a long range submarine capability and we are going to pursue this plan so that we can have that.

GLENDAY: Alright, Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles, thanks for your time this morning.

MARLES: Thanks, James.

ENDS