Television interview, Today Show

SUBJECTS: Support for Ukraine; Defence Delivery Reform; Prime Minister’s Wedding 

SARAH ABO, HOST: Acting Prime Minister and Defence Minister, who joins us live now from Geelong. Good morning to you, Acting PM. Good to see you. So, firstly, this $95 million — it’s our first package of military support to Ukraine in more than a year. What’s with the timing now?

ACTING PRIME MINISTER RICHARD MARLES: Well, we are making a contribution of $50 million as part of that $95 million package to NATO’s PURL program. So, this is a program where NATO are putting together money from a range of countries to essentially purchase new American kit for Ukraine. I should say we and New Zealand are the first non-NATO countries to participate in this, and obviously participating in this is really what’s driven the timing. But we’re really pleased to be able to participate in the PURL initiative, and as I say, along with New Zealand, the first non-NATO countries to do that. We’re also taking the opportunity to provide more materiel which we won’t be using, like munitions, tactical radars, combat engineering equipment and the like. We’re making a smaller contribution to the drone coalition. So, this is a good moment to be putting together this package.

ABO: Does that include the retiring Tiger helicopters? Will some of them be sent over as well?

MARLES: It doesn’t. But you’re right that we are retiring the Tigers. We’re still using them, but we are transitioning from those, and we’re having a good look at what we can do with those and whether they are suitable, and we’re talking to Ukraine about them. So, we’ll look at whether that is possible over the coming months. But this does not include that.

DAVID CAMPBELL, HOST: But in the meantime, you’ve announced some significant changes to Defence, merging three major branches. Are you considering that there was waste within this department?

MARLES: Look, we have seen challenges in Defence over a long period of time around delivering projects on time and on budget. There’s no secret in relation to that. And, you know, we’ve been very critical of former governments in terms of their ability to deliver projects on time and on budget. This is really the biggest reform to Defence that we have seen in more than 50 years. And what it’s about doing is putting a focus on delivery — making sure that that whole process is much sharper — by the establishment of the Defence Delivery Agency, and that will be headed by a National Armaments Director. And we are confident that with these changes, we can really sharpen up this process and make sure that the very considerable amount of money which is now being spent on Defence is spent in a way which gives the best bang for buck.

ABO: Well, the Budget is looming, and I’m sure that there will be some changes to the Budget bottom line that will be necessary right across all the departments. But before we let you go, Richard Marles — you were one of the very special guests, the VIPs at the Prime Minister’s wedding. It looked beautiful. Give us some inside goss — how was it?

MARLES: It was really a fantastic event. I mean, I was so happy for Anthony and Jodie. I mean, first and foremost, this was really about them as two people, and they worked very hard to try and make this about them and not a media circus. And it really was about that — and that was as it should be. But it was a fantastic night. They were really, really happy. And, you know, as far as weddings that I—

ABO: What song got you on the dance floor?

MARLES: The dance floor is not where I’m at my best. I happily watched on. But I can say that the Prime Minister is a better man than me and he was very much on the dance floor.

ABO: He’s on honeymoon. He’s not listening. Don’t worry about what he thinks — we want to know about you.

MARLES: All right. Yeah, that’s true. He is on honeymoon.

ABO: Thanks so much for joining us.

MARLES: It was a fantastic night.

ABO: It looked beautiful. It really did. 

CAMPBELL: Good to see you, Richard.

ENDS