Television Interview, Sunrise

SUBJECT: Conflict in the Middle East

MATT SHIRVINGTON, HOST: For more, we're joined by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. Good to have you with us. So, this conflict is spreading beyond the Middle East now, we understand that. Just this isn't a throwaway answer, are we safe here in Australia right now?

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, RICHARD MARLES: We are safe in Australia. We're a long way from this conflict. I mean, you know, we live in an uncertain world and of course we're not sanguine about our nation's national security. But Australians should have a sense of confidence that we have some of the best national security agencies in the world. And they are very much working day in, day out right now, around the clock to provide for the protection of our country and people should feel safe in Australia.

NATALIE BARR, HOST: It's being reported an air base used by Australian defence personnel near Dubai has been hit by Iranian missile strikes, this is the Al Minhad Air base. Can you confirm that that has been struck and that all the personnel are safe and accounted for?

MARLES: Yes, I can confirm both of those things. And so there was some drones which did attack that base on the first night, I think. We have a number of Australians who operate from a headquarters that we've had at Al Minhad now for many, many years- it's just outside of Dubai, about half an hour outside of Dubai. They are all accounted for, they are all safe. We've got north of 100 serving personnel actually across the Middle East in a range of countries, but most are in the UAE and that base is very important for us. But they are all safe and accounted for.

SHIRVINGTON: No injuries?

MARLES: No injuries, no.

SHIRVINGTON: Okay. We heard the British PM Sir, Keir Starmer question the legality of the US strikes on Iran. Do you support the US here or the UK?

MARLES: We support the US led action here. I mean, at its core, this is about preventing Iran from ever being able to acquire a deployable nuclear weapon. Were Iran ever to acquire that, it would be an utter catastrophe for the world and we simply cannot trust the Iranian regime in respect of their nuclear weapons programs, they've demonstrated that over many, many years. And so we are supporting the United States led action in relation to this because Iran walking down the path of acquiring a nuclear capability flies in the face of the rules based order. It flies in the face of the Non Proliferation Treaty and all the regimes that we have around the world which are about limiting the spread of nuclear weapons.

BARR: If this goes on for weeks, which it sounds like it might, how would that assistance from Australia take shape?

MARLES: Well, firstly, we've not been asked to provide any assistance in respect of the conflict itself. This is being undertaken by the United States and Israel and them alone. I mean, as I've said, we support the US led action, but it's being undertaken by them. I mean, it is difficult to speculate about how long this will go. Of course, it's the question that is on everyone's lips as to how long will this conflict protract for? You know, we are taking this literally a day at a time. I know that's a trite thing to say, but that's really all you can do and keeping our minds open about what the possibilities are. Our focus really at the moment is on the consular side of this. There's 115,000 Australians across the Middle East, there are lots of travellers who have been disrupted by virtue of this. On any given day, on a normal day, about 11,000 Australians will travel through Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha. And so that gives you a sense of the number of Australians who will be caught up in this and our focus is very much on them. What can be done in terms of getting people home is clearly restricted so long as airspace is closed. There are some media reportings of airspace opening up a little bit which is good news, but that's really what we are focusing on right now. And we've got a range of contingencies we're working through which I won't speculate about but it is really the welfare of the Australians who are in the region, which is our focus.

SHIRVINGTON: Yeah. So, can you commit to sending repatriation flights? We know Italy's done the same, Germany's done the same, France has done the same to get their people out.

MARLES: Well, look, we're working through contingencies, I don't want to speculate on it. The biggest restriction now is clearly airspace, I mean, it is fundamentally closed and so any form of flight is difficult. But we are working through contingencies. There are a lot of Australians in the region, 115,000, as I've said. And the one observation I would make is that as airspace begins to reopen, we would expect that the quickest option in terms of flights resuming will be commercial options. And so people really need to be monitoring the advice that the government is providing, that means monitoring Smartraveller- we've been very focused on making sure that this is an up to date trusted source of advice and we will be posting every bit of information on that as soon as we have it.

BARR: Okay, Richard Marles, Deputy Prime Minister, thank you very much for your time.

MARLES: Thank you.