Television Interview, Sky News First Edition

SUBJECTS: Geelong Viva Refinery Fire; Fuel Supply; 2026 National Defence Strategy and 2026 Integrated Investment Program

ALEX THOMAS, HOST: Let's speak to the man who announced Australia's latest defence budget, our Deputy PM and Minister of Defence, Richard Marles. Minister Marles, thanks for your time on Sky News this morning. You announced that increase in the defence budget yesterday. What do you make of this morning's criticism from US President Donald Trump that it's not enough?

DEPUTY PRIME MINSTER, RICHARD MARLES: Well, this is the biggest peacetime increase in Australia's defence spending in our nation's history, and certainly when you combine that with the other very significant increases that we have made during the course of our Government, and if you compare it with other countries, we are, you know, proportionately spending more on defence than any comparable like minded country in the Indo Pacific, we're spending more on defence than UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, most of NATO. So I think Australia's defence spending stacks up. I mean we are obviously working with our partners and allies, and that very much includes the United States in respect of the Strait of Hormuz, we understand how important it is for our national interests, you know, in terms of everything that the country's experiencing now, we get that, that obviously whatever ensues there is a function of what circumstances play out, and we don't know that yet, but we'll cooperate and do whatever we can to help.

THOMAS: Would you like to get to the three and a half per cent of GDP that the US President is demanding?

MARLES: Well, I mean the way we go about this is to think about what are our strategic landscape, what is the Defence Force we need to meet that moment, and then to resource it. I mean that's how we go about budgeting, it's not about picking a number or back filling. But the process by which we have been engaging has seen the biggest peacetime increase in Australia's defence spending in our nation's history, and that's because when you look at the strategic landscape that we face it is the most challenging that we've faced since the end of the Second World War, and it demands a bigger spend on defence, and that's what we're doing. But I think it's less about picking a specific number as it is about making sure that we have the capabilities to defend the country, and that's the process that we are going through, and as I say, when you look at what that actually does in terms of our spending versus other countries, it puts us in a place where we're spending more than most.

THOMAS: You've been accused of essentially creative accounting. Why did you include things like military pensions, veterans' compensation and defence housing in the calculations?

MARLES: Well, I mean there is no difference in the calculations in terms of how we account for defence in the budget, and that's principally how we have always gone about this. We like this think about this in terms of the dollar amounts that we have put into defence spending, and that is since we've come to Government we've increased spending by $30 billion over the next four years, by $117 billion over the next 10 years. Now to put that in context, during the Coalition Government, when they were wrestling with all the same sorts of strategic challenges that we are today, over the course of their time in government they increase defence spending by $10 billion over the decade, which is to say we've done 12 times as much in the last four years as what the Coalition did in nine. Now that's actually comparing apples with apples. In terms of international comparisons, we use the NATO model so that you can have a like for like comparison between us and our countries in the world, so it's really as simple as that.

THOMAS: But would you have preferred to see more direct spending on troops and weapons?

MARLES: Well, we are doing more spending on all of those. As I say, if you look at what we are doing in terms of spending on our personnel, I mean the Defence Force is growing again, when we came to Government it was shrinking, we are now growing our Defence Force again and the number of personnel is at a 20 year high, so we are spending more on troops. And in terms of what we're doing with materiel, we are, you know, the bulk of the money is going to spending it on the equipment that our soldiers, sailors and aviators use.

THOMAS: But did you get all the funding you asked for? Clearly there's immense strain on the Federal Budget right now with so many competing demands.

MARLES: I mean of course there is, and look, I'm a Defence Minister with everything that implies, but I mean as I said yesterday, I think if you take a step back and look at how the Expenditure Review Committee has treated defence, I mean what we've seen over the last four years is the biggest peacetime increase in Australia's defence spending in our nation's history, and so by any measure the Expenditure Review Committee under this Labor Government, under the Albanese Labor Government, has treated defence with the utmost importance and has delivered massive increases in defence spending.

THOMAS: Ultimately Australians will be asking is it enough to keep us safe?

MARLES: It is, and it's, you know, it is really important that what we are doing here is building agency, and as I said yesterday, you know, our biggest challenge is the risk of coercion, and we need to be able to have a defence force which can project, which can get out there, which can protect our sea lines of communication, they are being put into stark relief right now in terms of how important they are for national security, and what we are doing is creating a Defence Force which enables us to achieve that, and which gives our country agency and allows us to keep Australians safe.

THOMAS: Are we any closer to fully understanding how the Viva refinery fire will affect Australia's fuel supply?

MARLES: Well, look, I mean there is assessment still being done, but I spoke to the CEO of the company yesterday, Scott Wyatt, and the company is relatively optimistic that the impact on supply will be minimal.

I mean the part of the refinery which has been most affected is that which refines petrol, and that's the type of fuel which is least under pressure, and so diesel and jet fuel, which are the more under pressure fuel types were not as affected by the fire, and the company's also pretty confident that it will be able to replace any lost production in petrol through imports. And so over the journey, you know, and obviously the timing of this is terrible, I'm not seeking to suggest this is not a significant incident, it is, but the company is relatively optimistic that this will have a minimal impact in the grander scheme of things, and obviously they're doing everything they can to get the refinery up and running as soon as they possibly can.

THOMAS: So it sounds like you're ruling out the Government having to move to Stage 3 on your four point plan to tackle the fuel prices?

MARLES: Well, look, I mean we will monitor the various stages. I mean what's driving events here is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, that's the fundamental issue, and we will continue to monitor where the country's at in respect to the particular stages. I suppose what I am saying is I don't – I mean the timing of this fire is terrible, and it was a significant event, but I don't think this fire of itself results in us moving from one stage to another, but we will need to continually monitor circumstances, to see the situation that the country is in, and you know, if we have to do that, we will, that's obviously why we've set the stages out as they are, you know, but we are working, you know, night and day to secure supplies for the nation. That's why the Prime Minister was in Singapore last week, why he's been in Brunei and Malaysia in the last few days, and actually we've achieved quite a lot in terms of those visits and the agreements we have with those countries. So we'll continue to work on this, but you know, we meet a challenging global situation.

THOMAS: Okay, good stuff, Richard Marles. Appreciate you giving us those answers and that time on Sky News this morning.

ENDS