Television Interview, ABC News Breakfast

SUBJECTS: Australia-US relationship; Defence Spending; Middle East; ANZUS; AFL Finals – Geelong forced to play finals away from home

HOST, JAMES GLENDAY: It is such a massive problem in so much of the country. Now, we're nearly out of time today, but we can still squeeze in a quick trip over to the United States where the Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles is this morning. He joins us from Washington D.C. Richard, welcome back to the program.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, RICHARD MARLES: Good morning James, how are you?

GLENDAY: I'm very well, thank you. Now, you've just had a catch up with a few pretty senior members of the Trump administration. Did the US ask Australia to spend more on defence? That's been a pretty oft repeated demand.

MARLES: Well, we've got a good story to tell in respect of our defence spending, and we tell it. What we have announced in our National Defence Strategy earlier in the year was the fact that our defence spending today is at 2.8 per cent- it will go to 3 per cent by 2033. The combined increases in defence spending, which represents an increase of $117 billion over the planning decade, represents the biggest peacetime increase in defence spending in our country's history. And all of that puts us on this day ahead of most countries in NATO, Germany, France, Spain, Britain, and Italy. It puts us ahead of almost every country in the Indo Pacific. So, we are really clearly a country which is pulling its weight and which has a good story to tell on defence spending and we tell it.

GLENDAY: The price of oil is spiking again as the US and Iran exchange fire in the Middle East. Did you get any insight as to whether or not the US has a plan to actually finally end this war that it of course helped start?

MARLES: Well, look, we obviously spoke about events in the Middle East as we spoke about the strategic landscape across the Indo Pacific and the world. I'm not going to go into the specifics of that and you wouldn't expect me to. But I think what we need to see is the Strait of Hormuz open. And obviously what we are seeing with Iran seeking to limit shipping through the Straits of Hormuz is fundamentally in contravention with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea- freedom of navigation, and we need to see that open. We do want to see a de-escalation to what's occurred in the Middle East, but we need to see the Strait of Hormuz open and global fuel supply chains return to normal.

GLENDAY: Yeah, of course, at the start of the year before all this, it was open and oil was flowing freely. Do you think that the US has a plan to sort this out?

MARLES: Well again, we spoke about this, but I'm not about to go into the details of that. I just reiterate what I said. You know, we want to see a de-escalation in the Middle East, but it's also really important that the Strait of Hormuz be open. And right now it is Iran, which is seeking to limit shipping going through the Strait of Hormuz. And that's unacceptable.

GLENDAY: Every time you have one of these meetings, you say you talk about the strength of the US-Australia relationship and you say it's the cornerstone of our security. When Australians see Donald Trump renaming lakes as opposed to sorting out wars, when Pete Hegseth's mocking Canadian military cadets as opposed to getting involved in the Middle East, does that undermine what people back in Australia think, do you believe about the US about their trust in this relationship?

MARLES: Look, we are meeting today, a couple of days after the 75th anniversary of the signing of the ANZUS treaty, the formal alliance with the United States. And I think what that highlights is that our alliance for the United States is something that's been built over decades. It really does transcend governments of the day in D.C. but also in Canberra. Our defence relationship is profoundly important in terms of our national security. And we have a very close defence-to-defence relationship between our two militaries. We have senior embedded officers who are playing a really important role in shaping the way in which both of our defence forces work together. And our collaboration as two defence forces is really central to providing deterrence and building peace and stability in the Indo Pacific, which is ultimately what underwrites every Australians safety. So, you know, this is a profoundly important relationship and, you know, what we want to do is focus on that which I've described; look at this over the long term and make sure that people understand that the alliance is as relevant today in a very challenging and difficult world as it has ever been. And it's profoundly important that we are making sure that it continues to evolve and to grow and to meet the circumstances of the moment. And that's what we're doing.

GLENDAY: There's a lot more I'd like to ask you, but we are pretty much out of time. Very briefly, before I let you go, the Geelong Cats, your team finished fifth on the AFL ladder. Carlton finished 10th. Is it an outrage that Geelong has to play away from home at the MCG for an elimination final?

MARLES: I have made this point a lot, James that we play a lot of our home games away from Geelong and so I share in that sense of outrage. But I kind of notwithstanding the fact that Carlton have beaten us in four out of the last five times we've met, which is worrying me a little bit, I have a kind of an apprehensive sense of kind of confidence for our game on Friday night. So, hopefully the venue won't matter. Go Cats!

GLENDAY: I didn't want to bring up that win-loss record. I'm sure the people of Geelong are going to march on Melbourne. Thank you very much for joining us.

MARLES: No worries.

ENDS