Radio Interview, ABC

SUBJECTS: Iran-Israel conflict, the AUKUS pact, Pacific relations.

SALLY SARA: As the conflict in the Middle East continues to intensify, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has refused to rule out killing Iran's Supreme Leader. The Australian Government is currently planning options for repatriating Australians stuck in the region. 

Meanwhile, back home, Australia's defence capability and the future of the AUKUS pact have been front and centre at this week's Defence summit at Parliament House. 

Joining me to discuss is Pat Conroy, the Minister for Defence Industry and also Pacific Island Affairs. 

Minister, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast. 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY: Thank you for having me. 

SALLY SARA: If we start in the Middle East. With the fighting continuing, what's the Australian Government's latest understanding of the prospect of talks resuming for some sort of nuclear deal? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, we certainly urge all parties to return to the negotiating table. We are very concerned about the deteriorating situation, and we call for restraint and diplomacy to be the main priorities. So we want talks to resume, we want diplomacy over conflict, and we are very focused on supporting Australians to get out of the zone when we're able to. 

SALLY SARA: Does the Federal Government have any further update on the status of the hundreds of Australians seeking help to leave both Israel and Iran? 

MINISTER CONROY: Penny Wong visited DFAT Crisis Centre yesterday, and we're in contact with a lot of Australians over there. The air zones are closed at the moment, so planes can't get in and out, but we're preparing plans to evacuate Australians or assisting them getting on to commercial flights when those zones do open again. 

SALLY SARA: Is there any idea of how many Australians are keen to take up the offer of flights? 

MINISTER CONROY: A fair number, but there's a lot of dual citizens there who will probably want to stay in place. But we're working, and obviously we urge all Australian citizens in the Middle East who are concerned to register with DFAT so they can get the latest information about flights. 

SALLY SARA: How hard would it be to get people out of Iran right now? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, the air zone is closed, so there is no ‑ 

SALLY SARA: But even when that opens. 

MINISTER CONROY: It's going to be challenging; there will be a lot of people probably wanting to exit. So we have to be careful, but we're in contact with as many people as possible, and the DFAT team at the Crisis Centre are doing great work. 

SALLY SARA: Would it be possible to have repatriation flights from neighbouring countries? 

MINISTER CONROY: Oh, look, I'm not going to get into hypotheticals at this stage. I think it's important that we just urge all parties to use restraint to de‑escalate, and hopefully that will happen. 

SALLY SARA: Let's have a look at AUKUS. On the PM's imminent meeting with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7, do you think that Anthony Albanese can convince President Trump to drop tariffs on Australia and reaffirm the US commitment to AUKUS? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I'm absolutely certain the Prime Minister will promote Australia's national interests very strongly, and those are the two key topics that he's identified. 

On AUKUS, he's had a conversation with President Trump already on it, as has the DPM and Foreign Minister Wong with their counterparts. AUKUS is in the interests of all three parties involved, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. And we're confident that this review, which we did know about, that continues to review by the UK and our own Australian review, will conclude that it's in the interests of the United States to continue with AUKUS. 

SALLY SARA: On last night's Four Corners program, concerns were raised over submarine production in the United Kingdom under AUKUS, with the former First Sea Lord, Alan West, saying that the UK currently doesn't have the workforce or the specialist skills to deliver SSN‑AUKUS on time. 

Given similar concerns from the US and their capacity to build submarines on time, what is it that gives you confidence that Australia will get what it signed up for? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, a couple of factors: one is that I'm seeing a massive ramp up in both the United States and United Kingdom of workforce and investment. I visited Barrow in the United Kingdom; I've seen their training academy where they're training hundreds of young British people to work on these submarines. 

Secondly, we're actually mobilising the Australian industrial base to support both programs. We're investing $250 million to qualify Australian companies to win work in both supply chains. 

So the first work Australian companies will win on nuclear‑powered submarines will be for our partners, for example, Pacific Marine Batteries in Adelaide is supplying batteries to the UK Submarine Program right now. So Australian companies and Australian workers will win work helping getting these programs running. 

SALLY SARA: Looking to the Defending Australia Summit at Parliament which you attended yesterday, the South Australian Premier, Peter Malinauskas, made this call to the Federal Government in respect to the Naval shipyard in his State where submarines are due to be built under AUKUS. 

PETER MALINAUSKUS: I nominate a new number one priority in the next step of realising our sovereign submarine capability, the public release of a comprehensive, chronologically organised master plan for the Osborne submarine yard. 

SALLY SARA: Will the Government commit to releasing that sort of plan? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, we're in very frequent discussions with the South Australian Government, and we've released timelines publicly already, and if more detail would encourage and give reassurance, we're open to doing that. 

Preparatory work on the shipyard has begun, the design work is advanced on it, and everything is hitting the milestones at the moment, and so the South Australian Government is a key partner for us, and they're doing great work in partnership with us. 

SALLY SARA: Do you understand some of the frustration and concern from South Australia? 

MINISTER CONROY: Oh, I understand that, and I think the public debate has suffered from a lot of ill‑informed comment from some commentators. And I agree with the South Australian Premier that more public information, where it doesn't compromise security, is a good thing to reassure people that we are hitting all the milestones, AUKUS is on track, AUKUS is in our national interests, 'cause it will make Australia safer and help generate 20,000 well‑paid high‑tech jobs at the same time. 

SALLY SARA: You're listening to Radio National Breakfast. My guest is Pat Conroy, the Minister for Defence Industry and Pacific Island Affairs. 

The acting PM and Defence Minister Richard Marles said yesterday at the summit that our continent is more relevant to great power contest now than it's ever been before. Is inevitable that Australia would be drawn in to any conflict between the US and China? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I am always careful about engaging in hypotheticals, and our sovereignty remains paramount. The elected Australian Government of the day will always decide whether we'll be involved in a conflict, or we'll allow our continent to be used for operations, and that's a really important principle. 

But we live in a period of huge strategic uncertainty, that's why we're significantly increasing the defence budget, and we will continue to make decisions in the national interest to put the safety of Australians first. 

SALLY SARA: That sounds like an Australian-focused priority rather than: whatever the Americans want, we'll do it. 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, it's a statement of fact that all Australian Governments will exercise sovereignty and make decisions in our national interest and according to our treaty commitments of the day. 

We're obviously part of the ANZUS Alliance, and that has requirements, and we will always fulfil them. But ultimately it's a sovereign Australian Government that makes decisions about whether Australia enters conflicts or allows our territory to be used in operations. 

SALLY SARA: On your Pacific Islands Affairs portfolio, the Foreign Minister talks about a permanent contest in the Pacific. Is it still your assessment that China is looking to access facilities in the Pacific that it could exploit in a potential conflict? 

MINISTER CONROY: They are seeking a permanent security presence in the Pacific, and that's why we're working incredibly hard to be the partner of choice for the Pacific. 

When we came to power in 2022 we found our relationship with the Pacific in an awful position because of the attitude of the Coalition Government, and we worked very hard to repair that, including groundbreaking treaties with countries like Tuvalu, with Nauru, the Bilateral Security Agreement with PNG, the Elevated Vuvale with Fiji. 

We're doing huge work in the Pacific. I have visited Pacific countries 29 times, and we're really working on repairing those relationships, so we are the partner of choice for the Pacific. 

SALLY SARA: Minister, thank you for your time, and thanks for coming in to the studio this morning. 

ENDS