Radio Interview, ABC Sydney

SUBJECTS: Bradleys Head declared military memorial of national significance, Middle East Conflict, Price of fuel impact on inflation.

HOST, HAMISH MACDONALD: Now I suspect you'll know where I'm talking about if I mention Bradleys Head on Sydney Harbour, if you don't it's a short walk along the Harbour foreshore from Taronga Zoo. The focal point of the memorials at Bradleys Head is the mast of the original HMAS Sydney, which was the first ever Australian ship to engage in enemy at sea. Commemorative services are held there to honour our Navy personnel. Today the site is being declared a military memorial of national significance. What does that mean? Well, it gives it equal status to sites such as the Cenotaph in Martin Place, and the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne.

The Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel, Matt Keogh, has just attended a service there at Bradleys Head this morning. Good morning to you.

MINISTER FOR VETERANS' AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL, MATT KEOGH: Good morning, Hamish, great to be with you.

HAMISH MACDONALD: Tell us why this site is being elevated in status, please?

MINISTER KEOGH: So the Bradleys Head Memorial Site contains a number of memorials, it recognises the service of all of our Navy personnel over their 125 years' history, but it started with being a memorial for, as you mentioned, HMAS Sydney (I) which engaged with the Emden in the First World War, and it bears the parts of that ship there, and what's significant about it for Navy has been that they also recognise HMAS Sydney (II) at that site, which was sunk off the coast of Western Australia in the Second World War, over 600 people lost their lives there in its battle with the Kormoran.

But this is a significant site for Navy, it's recognised through Navy. Whenever a Naval ship passes Bradleys Head it has to provide a, if you like, a Naval salute to the memorial as the ship goes past.

And so we've now formally recognised that significance. It's been a place of commemoration since 1934, but it wasn't recognised as a nationally significant memorial; we've now done that today by properly recognising its significance.

HAMISH MACDONALD: Can you just explain that Naval salute, 'cause we sometimes see this when the footage comes in from helicopters into the newsroom that whenever the ships come in they do do that salute, perform that salute. What's the meaning of that?

MINISTER KEOGH: So as I mentioned, the mast of HMAS Sydney (I) is there, it was the first Naval ship to be engaged, first Royal Australian Navy ship to be engaged in combat against the Emden in November of 1914, and by providing that ceremonial honour, that Naval salute, if you will, it's recognising that sacrifice not just from that first battle, but of all sailors that have lost their life through conflict in the service of the Royal Australian Navy, and therefore the service of our nation. It's providing proper respect as a form of commemoration every time they pass that mast there on Bradleys Head as part of that Memorial.

HAMISH MACDONALD: You'll be aware that there's growing opposition in Sydney to the sale of some of these historic military or defence sites, including Victoria Barracks and others, some near to where you were this morning in fact, at Mosman. The former PM John Howard's joined Paul Keating in speaking out against the sale of some of these sites, but there is also State MPs, Liberals, Labor MPs like Marjorie O'Neill and Greg Warren. Do you think you've got this wrong?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, what we think is that this is really important for moving Defence forward. We've got a number of sites around the country. There was a full audit of all of the Defence properties across the country, Defence being the largest landowner in Australia, of what sites do we need to maintain and keep and what sites do we not need to be keeping, given how much money we have to spend on maintaining these properties.

A number of these properties that are now going to be disposed through this process are not even used by Defence at all, and they're in quite a state of disrepair, but they do absorb funding that we actually need to be spending on the defence of our nation in maintaining buildings that we're not using.

HAMISH MACDONALD: Yeah, I think listeners are pretty familiar with the argument behind the finances, right, but there is a question about whether Victoria Barracks in Paddington, or HMAS Penguin at Balmoral might become, for example, high cost housing, luxury housing. Would that be a satisfactory outcome in your view?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, what ultimately will happen to these sites is yet to be determined, and that's a process that we'll run through the Department of Finance to engage around how what ultimately occurs with these sites.

But I think it's important - you mentioned Penguin - not all of HMAS Penguin is being disposed of. Part of that -- 

HAMISH MACDONALD: Sure, but --

MINISTER KEOGH: -- Penguin [indistinct]    

HAMISH MACDONALD: -- but a large proportion of it.

MINISTER KEOGH: Sure. [Indistinct].

HAMISH MACDONALD: So my question is, and I wonder if you could just do listeners the service of being direct about this; would you be satisfied if these sites turned into luxury housing?

MINISTER KEOGH: What will happen with each of the sites is there will be a process engaged now around what's going to happen to those sites as they are disposed of. In some places that will be housing, there may be other and different uses in other sites, and that will be determined as we work through that process. I can't tell you exactly how each site will be used when they're disposed of.

HAMISH MACDONALD: I say this very respectfully, I mean these are vague and ambiguous responses.

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, that's because we haven't worked through those processes yet, Hamish, so I'm giving you an honest answer. That is a process that needs to be worked through. Obviously there's community engagement as part of those approaches. That's what's happened with the sale of other Defence sites over time, and so there will be that community engagement    

HAMISH MACDONALD: And that is genuine community engagement, not just a tick box exercise; you will listen if the community says, "Look, Victoria Barracks in Paddington, or the HMAS Penguin site, these are valued, these are treasured, the history, the heritage is an important part of this area and we want that to be retained"?

MINISTER KEOGH: The sites are being disposed from Defence use, we're not going to be using them for defence purposes, but there will be consultation about them, how the land is used as it is disposed of, as there are ordinary planning processes engaged for the use of any land sites.

I think importantly for sites like you mentioned, like Victoria Barracks, they are heritage listed buildings. They're also behind the wire. People don't get to see or engage with those buildings right now. What this will actually mean is that there will be probably more public access to these historical sites, and those buildings will be maintained because of the heritage protections involved on those sites.

So that is actually the public getting better access to them now than they do at the moment, because they're behind the wire, they're behind high fences, people can't access those sites and the military history that's associated with those historic sites as it is, but they're not sites that are actually useful in terms of the strategic use of land for the Defence Force, that's why they'll be disposed from defence use.

But how those sites are ultimately used is a process that we'll be engaged in going forward that will involve community consultation, as you would expect for any planning processes for whatever those ultimate uses of those sites are.

HAMISH MACDONALD: It's 20 minutes to 9. Matt Keogh is here, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel.

The US President Donald Trump's been speaking, he's seeking to rally a multinational Naval Coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz. Here's what he told reporters in the Oval Office earlier this morning.

DONALD TRUMP: What does surprise me is that they're not eager to help. There are a couple - we'll be announcing some names, and there are some that really were right upfront, I would announce the name now other than I, you know, maybe they'd prefer it not be announced for whatever reason.

I will say this: it's a lot easier to get people today than it was two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, before we destroyed their - before we obliterated the country    

HAMISH MACDONALD: That's Donald Trump earlier. Matt Keogh, we know the Australian Government is saying there's been no formal request of us, but is Australia eager to contribute?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, as you just mentioned, we haven't been requested to contribute to that. We've obviously, as you know, we've got a Wedgetail aircraft that's supporting defensive operations for the UAE in the Middle East, and we've got many Australians in that area, and that's important that we do that, but we haven't been requested to engage in what you're talking about there in terms of the Strait of Hormuz.

HAMISH MACDONALD: But obviously Australians are all aware of the implications of conflict there, the impact on oil flow, the impact on fuel prices ultimately here in Australia. Is it in Australia's national interest to make sure that the Strait of Hormuz has free, safe, open passage?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, as I think you'd be aware, some 20 per cent of the world's oil goes through those straits, and so them not being able to access whether it's oil or gas through those straits has a knock on effect throughout the entire world and Australia is experiencing that global impact, and that is something that obviously is greatly concerning to the Government, as it is to all Australians in terms of being able to see that oil flow.

To date we've seen all of the suppliers of fuel that we need coming into Australia that we would expect to come into Australia continue to arrive, so we haven't seen any supply issues coming into Australia as yet, and as you know from the announcement from Minister Bowen, we are pulling all the levers internally to make sure that that supply that is coming into Australia is getting out to Australians where they need it given the increase in demand that we have seen throughout Australia, and that's through making refined product that's being made in Australia in terms of diesel products being distributed now within Australia, whereas previously they were being exported as well as releasing some of our reserve capacity in Australia as well to make sure that that oil flows --

HAMISH MACDONALD: Sure. Is that --

MINISTER KEOGH: -- through the Australian supply chain.

HAMISH MACDONALD: I'm just curious about what your answer is as to whether it's in Australia's national interest to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

MINISTER KEOGH: I think certainly there's [audio glitch] the Strait of Hormuz, and obviously the United States is engaging on how they can reopen the straits at this time, but that's not something that Australia is engaged in militarily.

HAMISH MACDONALD: The expectation is there may be an interest rate hike today, the Reserve Bank meeting broadly tips to go in that direction or at least indicate that there's a likely future rate hike, and we've seen various members of your Government saying that this is really all to do with the broader global pressures, but inflation was rising before this outbreak of fighting in Iran. Is it reasonable to blame overseas factors entirely? Does the Government accept some responsibility for the inflation picture?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, we saw with the last interest rate rise that there was inflation that had been spurred on by growth in the private sector which, you know, it's good to see growth in the private sector but it has created a degree of inflation.

But what we are confronted with in Australia right now, particularly in terms of what we're seeing with the fuel price, is being driven by that external oil price shock, and so that is something that's not within the control of the Australian Government obviously and is something that's already having a real impact on people's hip pockets. And we've been acutely aware, even before this conflict, around the impact of inflation and interest rate increases on Australia's cost of living pressure, and that's why we've been making sure that we've been working to ameliorate those cost of living price shocks, and of course we've got another round of tax cuts that are coming on 1 July to assist with that.

But I think everyone will accept that given what a significant role the price of fuel plays in the calculation of CPI, the calculation of inflation, that those increases that have been significant that we have seen because of the price of oil on the global market is being led by those issues.

HAMISH MACDONALD: Matt Keogh, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much.

MINISTER KEOGH: Great to be with you, Hamish, thank you very much.