Radio Interview, ABC Radio National

SUBJECTS: AUKUS submarine program; support for Ukraine’s defence; reports of US Military preparing to strike Iran.

SALLY SARA: Well as you're hearing this morning, the British Government is considering removing Andrew Mountbatten‑Windsor from the royal line of succession, and the Australian Government has offered its support via a letter from the Prime Minister. 

The former prince was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office last week, he was later released amid a police investigation which is continuing. 

Mr Mountbatten‑Windsor has consistently denied any wrongdoing, as more details emerge about his alleged links to the convicted late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. 

Pat Conroy is the Federal Minister for Defence Industry and joins me now from London. Minister, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast. 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY, PAT CONROY: Thanks for having me, Sally. 

SALLY SARA: We'll get to your portfolio area shortly, but first, why is Australia offering support for the possible removal of Andrew Mountbatten‑Windsor from the royal line of succession? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, Australians are rightly disgusted about the revelations in the Epstein Files, and I think Australians are right to hold the view that it's entirely appropriate that Andrew is removed from the line of succession. So when the UK Government signalled that they were open to that possibility, Prime Minister Albanese was absolutely correct to signal that we would support such a move. 

SALLY SARA: What message is Australia sending as the first Commonwealth nation to take this step? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I'm not sure about whether there's any sort of direct message to the rest of the realm countries, but Australians are disgusted by what they've seen in the Epstein Files, and I think we're reflecting the strong view of the Australian community, and very clearly signalling that we'll work and cooperate with the UK Government should they decide to go down this path, which I think is a reasonable path. 

SALLY SARA: What reaction has Australia received from the UK following this step? 

MINISTER CONROY: Oh, I'm not privy to direct communications between the two Prime Ministers on this particular issue, but I think ‑ I've met with a number of Ministers today, including one who was one of the early sort of flaggers of this, and I think they're reflecting the views of the people of the United Kingdom just as we're reflecting the views of the vast majority of Australians. 

SALLY SARA: Moving to defence, you're in the UK to visit several key sites to observe progress in the delivery of the AUKUS submarine program. Have you been satisfied with what you've seen so far? 

MINISTER CONROY: So far, but the AUKUS program, which is nation building for our country, creating 20,000 high‑skilled jobs and giving the Navy the best submarines in the world, is hitting every milestone, and so far what I've seen in the UK confirms that. 

Today I announced that we've invested $310 million in some long‑lead items for the first two reactors for our first two AUKUS submarines that will be built in Adelaide, so this is another tangible example of progress being made on AUKUS. 

SALLY SARA: What does this mean for the timeline of delivery and operation? 

MINISTER CONROY: It's consistent with it. We've hit every major milestone, so we're on track to cut steel by the end of the decade, and for the first AUKUS submarine to be delivered in the early 2040s. 

Prime Minister Albanese with the South Australian and Premier and myself and Mark Butler made the announcement of $30 billion to build the submarine construction yard in Port Osborne - Port Adelaide, rather, and that will be the first submarine construction yard in the southern hemisphere capable of building nuclear‑powered submarines, and this is an important milestone, giving the Navy the best possible equipment to deter conflict in our region. 

SALLY SARA: The new Opposition Defence spokesperson, Senator James Paterson, says the Federal Government is cannibalising current Defence Force capabilities to pay for the AUKUS submarine plan. Are other parts of the ADF losing out to this project? 

MINISTER CONROY: Absolutely not. He's demonstrating a gross ignorance of his portfolio, and he should do less time talking and more time reading. 

We're increasing the defence budget, we've increased it by $70 billion over the decade, which is the largest peacetime increase in the defence budget. Far from taking money from other areas, we're spending $21 billion to establish a missile manufacturing industry in our country; we'll have three missile factories built. One's already built, the second one will be online by 2027, when they produced only two media releases, we've got Ghost Sharks in the water already, we're acquiring 11 Mogami‑class general purpose frigates; we're building capability in every domain. 

And Senator Paterson's comments were incredible, they were incredibly ignorant. He talked about needing more missiles, well, we're building missiles and we're getting more strike. He said we needed more drones, well, we've got the first armed drone in the country's history when his government cancelled the only armed drone project at the time. So I think he should just focus on getting up to scratch on a new portfolio that he's got. 

SALLY SARA: You're listening to Radio National Breakfast. 

You're hearing from Pat Conroy, the Minister for Defence Industry. Minister, yesterday we heard from the Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia four years on now from the beginning of Russia's full‑scale invasion. You've agreed to work with the UK on testing long‑range weapons for Ukraine's military campaign. What's the progress? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, we've announced that as part of the Australia-United Kingdom Defence Industry dialogue I had today with my counterpart, and this is about making our facilities available for the UK, which has been a very strong supporter of Ukraine's valiant resistance to Russian aggression, to test long‑range weapons that they are looking at giving to Ukraine.

SALLY SARA: Where will we test them? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, we've got a number of ranges, I don't want to be too specific, because we've got to be conscious about operational security, but we've got a number of very excellent ranges, the most prominent being in the Woomera [audio glitch] done there, but ‑‑ 

SALLY SARA: We just lost the line briefly. We've got you back, Minister, sorry. 

MINISTER CONROY: Yes, sorry about that. We've got a number of excellent ranges where these sort of tests can be conducted. Woomera is one obvious example. 

SALLY SARA: And just finally on another matter, international media's reporting that the US Military is preparing to strike Iran as early as this weekend as it ramps up its presence in the Middle East. Last year the Australian Government gave its support to US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Would we do so again? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, we're in a range of discussions with our allies and international partners, but I'm not going to go into specifics. We do stand with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against oppression, and we show our ‑ demonstrate our solidarity to the Australian‑Iranian community.

But I'm not going to go into details of any conversations we may or may not have had. 

SALLY SARA: Minister, thank you for joining me this morning. 

MINISTER CONROY: Thank you, have a good day.

ENDS