Radio Interview, ABC Adelaide

SUBJECTS: AALD, AUKUS, US Australia Relationship

RORY MCCLAREN [HOST]: Peter Khalil is the Assistant Defence Minister and joins us now. Assistant Minister, good morning.

PETER KHALIL [ASSISTANT MINISTER]: Good morning, Rory.

MCCLAREN: One of the reasons you’re in Adelaide is for the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue and a forum which is being held. You're addressing that particular forum. Is anything tangible going to come from this event?

KHALIL: Well, the Australian American Leadership Dialogue has been going on for thirty three years. It's a really important part of the bilateral relationship between Australia and the US. So, it brings together political leaders, thought leaders, experts in their fields across different sectors, including, you know, economic matters, IT, you know, military, defence issues, national security. And that's been going for thirty three years. And it's really about bringing together those people within the, within the bilateral relationship to talk about what's important for Australia and the US and how we work together. We don't always agree and this is a good thing about the dialogue. It's working through issues in the partnership and the friendship and the alliance that's lasted for decades and decades. And tangible, yes, I mean, I've been to a couple of these. It really does inform policymakers as well, given the bipartisan nature of this. You can have Labor and Liberal in there, you can have Republican and Democrat behind closed doors, they talk through the issues. As I said, sometimes reach a consensus, sometimes agree to disagree. And that's, I think, a very, very valuable part of dialogue.

MCCLAREN: Given the current US administration and decisions it has made since President Trump returned to office, can you appreciate why many South Australians are feeling apprehensive about the relationship between the two countries at present?

KHALIL: Yeah, I think immediately of the importance of South Australia to our industrial transformation within defence. South Australia, as the Premier has said, has always been a defence state and has had those jobs in defence, in sovereign capability. It's been remarkable and we're seeing that again in this transformation today. We went down to the Osborne Shipyards with the Premier yesterday. We hosted two US Congressmen, a Republican, Trent Kelly from Mississippi and a Democrat, Joe Courtney from Connecticut. Both of them completely on different sides of politics, as you can imagine. North and south, different parts of the country. The things they say they agree on is AUKUS, is the partnership and the alliance with Australia, along with the industrial transformation. The jobs that are being created in South Australia. They were so impressed with the work that was being done at Osborne. We did a tour of the future site where submarines will be built, the infrastructure work that's going on there, which is on schedule, and the jobs that are going to be created in South Australia, quite remarkable. The Premier talked about the thousands of jobs that are coming through already and will be coming through over the next decade. So, there was a strong support for that, a bipartisan support in the US system. Often, the media focuses on, you know, the negatives around the alliance, but a lot of the good stuff is hardly ever reported. And as I said, in the US system, in Congress, there's strong support for AUKUS and for the alliance.

MCCLAREN: Just on that, Assistant Minister, how important is it to get face time with someone like Representative Trent Kelly? Because let's just remind the audience as to some of the committees he sits on in the United States, namely the House Armed Services Committee. That is a very powerful committee in that jurisdiction.

KHALIL: Absolutely, Rory. I mean, he's also the chair of the Subcommittee of the Sea Power, which is particularly important for the work that's going on in South Australia, given our work in the shipyards and on the submarines and the maintenance around both the Virginia Class, which are coming online as well. So, we've got these relationships with our colleagues over there. I met Trent when I was Chair of the Intelligence Committee, and he was sitting on the House Intelligence Committee a number of years ago. Joe Courtney's been a strong friend of Australia for a decade or more. They're both members of what's called the Australia Caucus. So, you'll see that our colleagues and MPs and Senators from both sides of the aisle are meeting with those Congressmen and the Senators that are important to talk about the relationships, talk about where the benefits are, the complementarity that's happening as well. Working as a team. There was a big scene yesterday when we were talking to the Premier about that with Trent and with Joe about the team-oriented type of principles around AUKUS. We're working together on common interests. We have shared values, shared democracies, but we also have this common interest to ensure the security and stability of the Indo-Pacific to ensure that we get jobs for our people, as well.

MCCLAREN: And what are they telling you about the AUKUS review?

KHALIL: Yeah, so there's nothing unusual about the review in the sense that, we conducted a review through our Defence Strategic Review, our National Defence Strategy. The UK’s incoming government conducted a review, and the incoming Trump Administration is conducting a review. And so, we welcome the review, and the Premier made this point as well yesterday, because it will bring out the benefits that accrue to our three nations, because we know what's happening, we see it on the ground. And Trent and Joe also strongly support the work that's going on through the AUKUS initiative. I mean, they were very impressed when they saw the work that's happening over there at Osborne and the infrastructure bill that we're seeing happened right before our eyes. So, they're very confident in the commitment to AUKUS, and they've been important voices into the administration as well. And they're constantly talking to people at the White House as well. So, we've got good friends in the Australia Caucus, and that's because we all know how important this is for all three countries to ensure that we maintain that stability and security and the prosperity that flows from that to all of our people. And, you know, I think the biggest challenge we're facing, Rory, in South Australia, as the Premier talked about, is the workforce challenge. Training people up, getting the skills up. That's why the TAFEs are being built. That's why there's going to be so many opportunities for South Australians to get jobs in amazing and interesting industries.

MCCLAREN: Assistant Minister for Defence, Peter Khalil, thank you for joining us on the morning show. 

KHALIL: Thank you.

ENDS