Television interview, ABC News Breakfast

SUBJECTS: Support to Ukraine; Defence Delivery Reform, Social media minimum age

BRIDGET BRENNAN: Time to talk Federal politics now with the Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles. Good morning to you, Richard Marles. 

ACTING PRIME MINISTER RICHARD MARLES:  Good morning, Bridget, how are you? 

BRENNAN: Yeah, I'm well, thank you. So let's talk about Ukraine. We just heard a little bit there about an update in the conflict. We've committed an additional $95 million to Kyiv. What will this be used for? 

MARLES:  Well 50 million of this goes to NATO's PURL Initiative. This is NATO encouraging a number of countries to contribute money so that essentially new American kit can be purchased for Ukraine. And along with New Zealand we are the first non-NATO countries to commit to this initiative, and we're pleased to be able to do that. In addition to that, we are able to supply some other material that we won't be using, for example munitions tactical radar, combat engineering equipment. And we're also making a contribution to the Drone Coalition. 

So this is a significant package. It's our latest iteration. It takes our overall support to Ukraine up to $1.7 billion. And we will stay with Ukraine for as long as it takes for this conflict to be resolved on Ukraine's terms. 

BRENNAN: Peace talks led by the US look as though they're going to take an additional amount of time, there's so much complexity involved in those ceasefire negotiations. But Australia and New Zealand are also committing to be part of a multinational force. Could this mean in the event of a ceasefire that Australia would be there to support some sort of transition in Ukraine on the ground? 

MARLES:  Well we've made clear that we will be part of a Coalition of the Willing, and in whatever form our support is needed welcome ‑ we will be there. Now, you know, we need to see a peace to maintain before we're able to exactly determine what that looks like, but we are part of the Coalition of the Willing discussion. I might also say we are very grateful to the United States for all of their efforts in trying to bring about a peace. But as you've said, it is a very complicated process and it is taking time, and in the meantime what's really important is that we stand with Ukraine and that's why this package of support is so important. 

BRENNAN: There have been a lot of announcements in Defence just this week. What sort of changes do you anticipate in terms of acquisition and commissioning from Defence now that you've overhauled the Department, or signalled you'll do so? 

MARLES:  Well we're seeing record levels of expenditure in Defence, I mean that's happened since we have come to government. I mean this is the biggest peacetime increase in defence spending in our nation's history, and what comes with that is a responsibility to make sure that every dollar is being spent in the best possible way. And the reforms that we've put in place are about getting a better bang for our buck. It is about putting a focus on delivery. Too often in the past we have seen Defence programs run over time and over budget. This is really about ensuring that we have the delivery expertise in place to ensure that we are able to see Defence programs be done on time and on budget. 

BRENNAN: Big changes ahead for Australian families in the coming days with the social media ban obviously coming into effect, we've been talking about it a lot on the program in the past couple of weeks. Do you know whether or not, has the Government had confirmation that Meta will start kicking off some Australian teenagers from today? 

MARLES:  Well, I mean we're obviously working with the companies in relation to how to implement the ban and that will take place over the course of the next few days leading up to when the ban takes effect. What's important though is that we are confident that this ban will be in place on the requisite date, and our Minister Anika Wells and the whole Government has done a fantastic job in putting this in place. This is, as you say, world leading reforms and it is absolutely about ensuring that children are able to enjoy their youth, and the challenges that come with social media are ultimately not impinging upon kids' ability to fundamentally grow up. This will be implemented, we're confident about that, and this is a really important reform.

BRENNAN: You've got some Parliamentarians concerned with the timing of this coming into school holidays with so many children using social media for important connections, especially those from marginalised communities. What's the Government put in place here? I mean could there well be adverse effects to kicking teens off social media who use it for connection? 

MARLES:  Putting this in place is a profoundly important change in terms of helping ensure that children are able to have their youth. And whatever time you choose there are going to be challenges, but this is a really important change. 

We have seen the adverse effects of social media on young people take their toll, and it is really important that we are doing everything within our power to bring about this, and we're confident that we'll be able to do it and we're confident that we'll be able to do it at this time. 

BRENNAN: All right, we'll see how it goes. Richard Marles, thanks very much for your time on the show this morning. 

MARLES:  Thank you.

ENDS