Television Interview, ABC News Breakfast

SUBJECTS: Recruitment for Space Operations roles in the ADF; President Herzog Visit; Coalition leadership

JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: Let's get a little bit more on those new space jobs we've been telling you about all morning. And the Minister for Defence Personnel, Matt Keogh, joins us now from Parliament House in Canberra. Minister, welcome to the program.

MATT KEOGH, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Good morning. Great to be with you.

GLENDAY. So, I had a look at these position descriptions and perhaps it's the public service, but they are pretty vague. What exactly are these new employees going to do?

KEOGH: Yeah, those job descriptions for our Space Operations Officers and Space Operations Specialists are deliberately broad because there's a lot that they will be doing, whether it's in the areas of surveillance and reconnaissance, whether it's monitoring for missile launch, environmental monitoring, satellite communications and intelligence, or monitoring the space domain itself and having effects in space. It's a broad sweep of different things that our space operators do. And today we're launching those direct recruitment opportunities into those space operation roles. So, previously, we've brought people from across Defence into our space operations. Now, people who've got an interest in space will be able to directly join our Defence Force to undertake these important roles.

GLENDAY: How much, I mean, I think most people wouldn't think of Australia and think of us as a major space power. I know there's a lot of focus on this. What sort of things are we doing in space, and why does the Defence Force need space specialists?

KEOGH: Well, Australia's actually got a long and proud history when it comes to our engagement in the space domain. Anyone who's watched the movie The Dish will know about the integral role that Australia played in the moon landing. But from there to the 21st century, the space domain is essential when it comes to supporting all of our Defence Force operations across air, land and sea, as well as cyber operations. Because it's so important in terms of our capacity to communicate, to engage, to understand the various domains that we operate in. And we've been doing that for some time with a specialist space operations area within the Defence Force. But what we are now doing is allowing for direct recruitment into that. And of course, it involves not just operating satellites, but also being able to access information from a wide variety of satellites. But those comms links from land to space, as well as from other platforms into space as well, is all part is required for space operations.

GLENDAY: Well, the new advertisement certainly makes it look exciting. I know they're going to be based in a building next to Queanbeyan. But if I could just take you to another issue, Minister. The Israeli President is visiting Australia this week. Some of your Labor colleagues around the country don't think this is the right thing right now for social cohesion. Can you understand or sympathise with those concerns?

KEOGH: I understand people have concerns about this, but I think it was incredibly important for the Australian Jewish community that this visit take place in the light of what happened at Bondi, as a terrible terrorist attack that's happened against the Jewish community here in Australia. And whilst people may have different views about that, it's important as part of that process of supporting our Jewish community.

GLENDAY: And just before I let you go, do you expect Sussan Ley will be Opposition Leader by the end of the week?

KEOGH: Who knows? I mean, this is a Liberal party, a Coalition, again, that's very much focused on themselves. We as a government are focused on the issues and concerns of the Australian people. We'll let them fight amongst themselves while we get on with the important job of representing the Australian people in the government and making sure that we're focused on important issues like cost of living pressure, housing and of course, the important issues of national security, which making these space domain roles available for direct recruitment is an important part of. 

GLENDAY: To infinity and beyond. Matt Keogh, thank you very much for joining us today.

KEOGH: Thank you.

ENDS