Doorstop, Parliament House

SUBJECT: Conflict in the Middle East

JOURNALIST: Minister, can you tell us what part of the Al Minhad Air Base was struck?

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Look, I won't go into that. On the first night there was a strike at the Al Minhad Air Base, but all the Australians who are there are safe and accounted for. There were no injuries to Australians. We’ve got more than 100 personnel, actually, across the Middle East. Most of them are in the UAE where we've had an operational headquarters at Al Minhad for many, many years now. But they are all safe and accounted for.

JOURNALIST: Thousands of Australians obviously are still stranded in the Middle East with limited information getting through. They're not really sure what's going on. You mentioned this morning that there are contingencies in place. Can you give us any idea of what these are?

MARLES: Well, we're working through contingencies but I really don't want to speculate on them, because it clearly is a function of what plays out and that is very uncertain. But we have all the scenarios in mind and we are preparing as best we can for them. But I'd also make the point there's 115,000 Australians across the region. The most significant limitation on being able to do anything is the restriction of airspace. And when airspace begins to open up, our expectation is that the quickest flights that will resume will be commercial options. So that's, you know– our focus is making sure that we are getting information through to people as quickly as we can. As soon as information comes to hand, we are putting that on Smartraveller. It is a trusted source of information, and we would encourage people in the region to follow that.

JOURNALIST: What do you mean by contingencies, though? Like, what's an example?

MARLES: We're preparing for these circumstances and I don't want to go further than that. I mean, it is not sensible for me to speculate more, because it is a function of what plays out here and that's obviously very uncertain. And so we're not about to start dealing with hypotheticals. What we've got is a situation where there's significant disruption in the Middle East. It's hard to know how long that will go for. There's a lot of Australians who are there. We are, you should know, working on scenarios. So the Government is very active in terms of our preparations. But right now, the focus is about ensuring that information is being provided as quickly as it can be, as quickly as it comes to hand to us, and people who are affected here need to really be following that advice very carefully.

JOURNALIST: Minister, you stated that Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons undermines the global non‑proliferation regime. However, critics are pointing to a double standard here regarding the nuclear arsenals of the US and Israel. Can you please respond to that?

MARLES: I mean, the Non-Proliferation Treaty is a well understood piece of architecture. It is what we have been a part of. It obviously is being developed around the P5 – the five nuclear powers – so I don’t think there's a lot of point in going through all of that, but the expansion of nuclear weapons is something that would be of enormous concern, and the prospect of Iran acquiring a deployable nuclear device would be utterly catastrophic for the world. There's absolutely no doubt about that. I think anyone who is suggesting that that's not a concern really does not understand the significance of the geostrategic challenges that the world faces today. Now it's in the context of that that we do support the US‑led action, because this is about, at its core, denying Iran ever the ability to have a deployable nuclear device.

JOURNALIST: Should authorities investigate these public mourning ceremonies for the former Ayatollah?

MARLES: Oh, look, I'll leave that to the police. I'm not about to give the police advice as to what they should be doing. That's not how politicians should act. But let me say this, mourning the supreme leader, I think, is a grave misjudgment. The people we are focused on are the thousands of Iranians who have lost their lives at the hands of the Supreme Leader in just the last few weeks, before you start looking at the countless numbers of Iranians who have lost their lives at the hands of the Supreme Leader over the near 40 years that he's been at the helm in Iran. You know, our thoughts and our warning is for those brave Iranians.

JOURNALIST: Should expressions of support for murderous dictators factor into decisions about who is granted entry or residency in Australia?

MARLES: The systems that we have in place in terms of granting permanent residency and visas and the like are well understood, and they are very clear. Our position in respect of what we've seen over the last 24 hours is that we think it is very misplaced to be mourning the former Supreme Leader of Iran. The people who we are mourning as a government are the thousands of brave Iranians who have lost their lives at the hands of the Supreme Leader.

JOURNALIST: How concerned are you about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz? A fifth of the world's oil flows through there. What does this mean for petrol prices, transport prices? How concerning is that for the Government?

MARLES: Yeah, look, it's a good question. I mean, obviously we're concerned. Exactly what the economic impact of this conflict is, is going to be a function of how long this conflict goes and that's clearly very uncertain. The effective closure of the Straits of Hormuz have really happened over the last couple of days. I mean, we've seen normal shipping traffic through the Persian Gulf be severely restricted from the moment that this conflict began, and were it to proceed over a significant period of time, there will definitely be an economic impact associated with this. But it is a matter of not getting ahead of ourselves right now. I mean, we don't know how long this will go. We do need to be taking a day at a time. We are clearly monitoring the economic dimensions of this as well and the potential impact on the cost of living here in Australia, and it's to make the point clear that we've been making really since we've come to Government, that the core business of the Albanese Government has been helping Australians deal with the cost of living.