Doorstop, Adelaide

SUBJECT/S: Major milestones for Australia’s air intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities; Defence Estate Audit; ADF drone and counter-drone capabilities; AUKUS; ADF recruitment; Superannuation; Middle East conflict; Fuel security.

MATT BURNELL, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR SPENCE: It’s great to be here with the Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, and the Chief of Air Force today, here in the Defence State, in its heart at RAAF Base Edinburgh. RAAF Base Edinburgh has got a decades-old history of aviation excellence through PC-3s, to the P-8 Poseidon and much, much more. Today we get to celebrate a new milestone in the capability that our exceptional men and women aviators are delivering here, and to speak more about that, I'll hand over to the Acting Prime Minister, Richard Marles.

RICHARD MARLES, ACTING PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Well, it's great to be here with Matt Burnell, the local member here at RAAF Base Edinburgh, member for Spence, and also to be here with Air Marshal Steven Chappell, the Chief of the Air Force. Today is a really great Air Force day. We are acknowledging three very significant milestones in terms of Air Force capability, and specifically ISR capability, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. We have now achieved initial operating capability for the MQ-4 Tritons. They are our long-range, uncrewed aircraft, which are of enormous assistance. They can fly for 24 hours. We have three of those operating now. The fourth will come in 2028. They actually operate out of Tindal, which is why you don't see the airframes behind me. But they are, in effect, operated from here. What they do is provide us the greatest long-range coverage and surveillance of our maritime domain. They are fundamentally a maritime domain awareness capability. They are a complete game changer in terms of us being able to surveille the oceans that surround the country. As I say, they are fundamentally operated by No. 9 Squadron, which operates from here at RAAF Base Edinburgh. We have also now received the last of our fleet of 14 P-8s, and you've got the P-8 above my right shoulder. This has been an acquisition program that's occurred over the course of the last decade. We received the first of these back in 2016, so this now completes the fleet of P-8s, and this is our most capable crewed maritime surveillance aircraft. As the Triton kind of gives that bigger picture, what the P-8 does is give a much more precise, surgical response. It obviously has an offensive capability. It is our principal airborne anti-submarine warfare capability, but it very much does intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. We've also received the first of the upgraded P-8s back from the United States. We've got another which is undergoing an upgrade there right now. So that's two of the 14. But importantly, from the perspective of RAAF BaseEdinburgh, the remaining 12 will go through their upgrades at the deep maintenance facility here at RAAF Base Edinburgh, which we opened a few months ago, and in doing that, it will support the Defence industry here in Adelaide, supporting hundreds of jobs. And finally, the MC-55 Peregrine, which is above my left shoulder, this is the most capable surveillance of the electromagnetic spectrum by an airborne platform that really exists in the world today. It does have a maritime dimension, but fundamentally, it's a much broader capability than that. It is monitoring the electromagnetic spectrum across land and sea, and really represents one of the highest capabilities that exists in the world in respect of what it does. We have three of four Peregrines now here at RAAF Base Edinburgh. We will be getting the fourth, but as I say, it too has now achieved its initial operating capability. When you look at these three platforms, these are part of a $5.5 billion investment that the government is making in Air Force ISR over the planning decade. They're all operated here at RAAF Base Edinburgh. They play a very significant role in terms of supporting Defence industry here in Adelaide across these three platforms there would be hundreds of jobs in Defence industry here in Adelaide which are supporting them. I think finally the point to make is the significance of this Air Force base. I mean, in many ways, we think about Adelaide in the context of submarines, and that's appropriate. Obviously, the Osborne Naval Shipyard will play a critical part in constructing our future SSN-AUKUS submarines. But often, in the context of Adelaide, we don't think enough about RAAF Base Edinburgh. This is one of the three big air bases in Australia. It is the heart of Air Force ISR, and today we see that capability very much on display across these three platforms.

AIR MARSHAL STEPHEN CHAPPELL, CHIEF OF AIR FORCE: Acting Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, a real pleasure to have you here at RAAF Edinburgh to announce these milestones for our air ISR platforms. The initial operating capability of the MQ-4 of No. 9 Squadron, the initial operating capability of our MC-55s with 10 Squadron, and the milestone of the complete 14-aircraft fleet and the start of the upgrade process for our P-8s of Nos. 11 and 12 Squadrons. First and foremost, I want to pay tribute to our air domain team that has got us to this point, and will continue to generate and deliver this air power as part of our integrated force on behalf of our nation. We have 2,400 aviators of the Royal Australian Air Force here at RAAF Base Edinburgh, along with hundreds of public servants and industry colleagues that make up that air domain team. And without their efforts every single day, and the love and support of their families and friends, these incredible pieces of equipment and capabilities don't get airborne and don't do the missions they need to do for Australia. Speaking of missions, as I speak to you right now, we have all three aircraft types airborne operationally out of Australia and around the region today as I speak. So they work together as a family of systems to build and maintain our situational awareness of the maritime domain in the Indo-Pacific. More broadly, our situational awareness of what is going on in the region, so they can feed that back to the broader integrated force. And this is all part of our strategy of denial and deterrence strategy to demonstrate that we have that situational awareness, we have that understanding, and if need be, we can reach out and ensure that we can deny any potential adversaries of the future the ability to project into our region and harm Australia's interests.

MARLES: Questions?

JOURNALIST: With the F-35 fighter parts, you'd be aware of that, that some have gone missing in Hong Kong. What assistance is Defence providing the US in its investigation into these parts, and has Defence done its own review of the processes?

MARLES: Yeah, so we are obviously working with the United States and obviously with its prime contractor Lockheed Martin, in respect of this. We are examining very much everything that has occurred at the Australian end, but the point I would make here is that we are confident about the way in which we've engaged with the program, and through the US's prime contractor, Lockheed. My understanding is that there is a sense of comfort, and we're not talking about sensitive equipment here or sensitive parts. Ultimately, though, this is an issue which is going to be managed by the United States and by Lockheed in terms of what has occurred.

JOURNALIST: When did the US inform Australia about these missing parts or is this down the track?

MARLES: Well, we've been made aware of this, and we're obviously working with the United States and Lockheed in terms of how we can assist in this investigation. This is ultimately a matter for the US and Lockheed, as its prime contractor and the contractor that is responsible for managing  the global supply chain. 

JOURNALIST: So no sensitive parts?

MARLES: It’s a question that best directed to the United States and Lockheed, but that is my understanding, we're not talking about sensitive parts here.

JOURNALIST: Acting Prime Minister, how inflationary would Angus Taylor's fuel –

MARLES: So I'll answer the question. While we've got the Chief of Air Force here, if there are any additional questions? I will come back to that one.

JOURNALIST: Yeah, if that's okay. Yeah, I was just going to ask you a question about drone capability. Would you like to be more advanced in terms of where we're at with drones, or are you satisfied with the level of operating capability that we have got at the moment?

CHAPPELL: Well, I guess the question depends on what we're talking about with drones. As an example, we have an uncrewed system, the MQ-4, right now, airborne and operational. We have the MQ-28 Ghost Bat as an uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft as well. So we have some fantastic capabilities in the Royal Australian Air Force. The Australian Defence Force more broadly operates a number of uncrewed, or drone, systems, and then we're also rolling out the counter-UAS capabilities across our bases, and that's an ongoing active line of effort, and we'll continue the work across Defence, across government, and the states and territories with the various jurisdictions to ensure that we can respond lawfully and we can respond safely to any incidents that affect our aviation safety around the airfields, or more broadly, security around our Defence establishments.

JOURNALIST: We've seen these drones, these mass-produced, for want of a better word, sort of kamikaze drones, just fly into buildings overseas. Do any of these aircraft have an effect in detecting those before they hit the battlefield?

CHAPPELL: So these particular aircraft, certainly the MQ-4 and the P-8, are really focused on the maritime domain. So they're searching the oceans and the seas, the surface and below the surface. In the case of the P-8, particularly for submarines or underwater vessels. The other capabilities we have in the Air Force, particularly the E-7A Wedgetail, our fighter aircraft, absolutely would be detecting those type of capabilities. Our ground-based air Defence systems in the Australian Army, including the NASAMS, will as well, as well as AIR6500 Integrated Air and Missile Defence capabilities tested at the Woomera Range, just up the road here, 450 kilometres away, a few months ago. Fantastic capabilities coming online there, and our ground-based future air Defence systems. Lots of capabilities, and then we get into our Navy capability as well. So there are plenty of capabilities out there to defend against those types of systems. We will look to build out our broader integrated air and missile Defence capabilities over the coming years.

JOURNALIST: How deep can it detect submarines?

CHAPPELL: I won't go into the specifics for operational reasons, but the P-8 is the world-leading submarine hunter. The Royal Australian Air Force operates it, along with the U.S. Navy and a few other partners, and it's a great example of our Tier One Air Force. We have leading-edge capabilities, both our human capabilities, our people, and the systems here are the best in the world. This is an example of one of those in the underwater domain.

JOURNALIST: I am not expert either, but I saw on the weekend there was a large missile attached to the side of the P-8 (indistinct). How far advanced does that put Australia when we have  this kind of technology? 

CHAPPELL: Yeah, so that's a long-range anti-shipping missile, and that is now fitted and operational on our P-8 fleet, as well as our Super Hornet fleet, the F/A-18Fs, based up at RAAF Amberley. This is again a Tier One weapon designed to target the very best warships in the world. So, if in the future we were ever in a conflict, then these weapons would have the greatest capability against those enemy targets, and put those targets where they belong in conflict.

JOURNALIST: So for you to see a plane like that, it sort of looks like what would be a commercial 737, but just, you know, done for the military spec. But that's just as lethal as a fighter jet or an MQ-28?

CHAPPELL: That's an outstanding warplane right there. That's right.

MARLES: So I might just, in answer to a couple of those questions as well, in terms of the detecting of drones, we obviously have the E-7A, which Air Marshal Chappell spoke about. But we have our E-7Aoperating in the Middle East now, and it has been for well most of this year, actually, in support of the Defence of the countries of the Gulf, and so it has been doing exactly that kind of work. And in respect of drones, when you look at what we announced with the Integrated Investment Program as part of the National Defence Strategy 2026, really the big shift between 2024 and 2026 was the amount that we have now committed to autonomous systems and drones, and so it is a key focus of the Defence Force that we are seeking to build moving forward. And there's no doubt that over the last two years particularly, we've seen a huge evolution in the way in which drones have formed a part of warfare. I mean, we've seen that in Ukraine, we've seen it in the conflicts in the Middle East, and we have learnt the lessons from that, and it's very much being factored into the Defence Force that we're seeking to build.

JOURNALIST: Just on this topic, what were the milestones that you mentioned?

MARLES: So the milestones in relation to the P-8 - there's kind of two in there, which is one is that we've received the final aircraft of the fleet of 14, as well as receiving the first of the upgraded P-8. So they will progressively go through an upgrade process. Two of them being done in the United States, but the remaining 12 being done here in Adelaide. In relation to both the MC-55 Peregrine, which is the smaller plane behind me, we are purchasing four of those. We now have three in operation, and we have achieved what we describe as initial operating capability, which means that it is actually operating in the field. And when I say that, it's operating in the field on this day. And similarly with the Triton, which you can't see because the platform operates from Tindal, but is flown from here. It's an uncrewed platform. Again, we are acquiring four of those. We have three in operation right now, which means that they have met initial operating capability, and they are in service on this day as well.

JOURNALIST: What message do you, on a related topic, what message do you hope to send at the Submarine Institute conference today in the fireside chat?

MARLES: Well, I think the point to make in respect of how we are progressing with moving towards a nuclear-powered submarine capability under the banner of AUKUS is that it is very much happening. We have now seen the fifth anniversary of the announcement of AUKUS. You know, so much has happened in those five years. But importantly, as we have announced the optimal pathway to acquiring a nuclear-powered submarine, which we did in March 2023, we are meeting every milestone associated with that pathway. You know, the very first step was to see more frequent visits of nuclear-powered submarines from the United States and the United Kingdom to Australia, and particularly HMAS Stirling in Western Australia. That's all been happening. The key milestone of the Submarine Rotational Force-West being up and running from the end of 2027, that is on track, and there are American personnel at HMAS Stirling right now in readiness for that. In terms of the construction of SSN-AUKUS, which will be the Australian-built submarine here in Adelaide that will roll off the production line in the early 2040s, you are seeing construction happen at a pace right now at Osborne for the actual construction yard.  But in terms of the whole program that we are doing there with the United Kingdom, the UK is on track to cutting steel on the first of the SSN-AUKUS submarines next year, with a view to their first submarine coming off their production line at Barrow-in-Furness in the late 2030s. That in turn implies that the level of design which has now occurred in respect of that submarine. We're participating in all that. I mean, really, it is a moment where you can see that AUKUS is crystallising; it is taking shape. There are more than 1,000 people in Australia today working on AUKUS. This is a program which is happening, and it is happening on time, and it is happening in a way where we are not seeing a capability gap from the Collins-class submarines that we operate today through to the nuclear-powered submarines that we'll be operating in the not-too-distant future.

JOURNALIST: Where are you at with the de-establishment of military barracks around the country, and have you given Victoria Barracks a December 19 eviction date?

MARLES: Look, I mean, I've seen the reports on that. I mean, what I would say in relation to the Defence Estate Audit more generally is this is a really important program that we are pursuing here. The most significant thing in relation to the Defence estate is that we are the largest landowner in the country - Defence. And so much of what we own, we don't use, and that is a function of years of neglect under former Coalition government. Nothing was done here because it was all too hard. Frankly, there wasn't the courage on the former Coalition government to make the difficult decisions to deal with this, and the most significant aspect of having a Defence estate which is not fit-for-purpose is that we're not we're not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars maintaining bases and sites that we don't use. We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars maintaining sites that we don't use. Now, you know, we face a really difficult strategic landscape. I mean, it's a really serious moment in the nation's history, and it matters that we have a Defence estate which is fit-for-purpose. It matters that we have a government which is willing to make difficult decisions. It does not matter that we happen to have the oldest wine cellar in Sydney at Victoria Barracks Sydney. That is not a core capability. 

JOURNALIST: The history of these barracks, when facing up to these military challenges, is recognised in that process, like Victoria Barracks, like the inner-city barracks in Melbourne and Brisbane as well.

MARLES: It absolutely matters, which again is why that's a history that should be celebrated and should be returned and owned by every Australian. Let's be clear about Victoria Barracks Sydney. Most members of the Army have never been to Victoria Barracks Sydney. Victoria Barracks Sydney is effectively off limits to the people of Sydney and the people of Australia. In terms of acknowledging and celebrating the history that you've just referred to, none of that is able to be done at scale in the way that it should. And if you're thinking about a heritage organisation to do it, the last organisation in a position to do it is the Australian Defence Force. Every dollar that we are talking about within the Australian Defence Force, which would be spent on maintaining the heritage of Victoria Barracks Sydney, is contested with capability, and right now we need capability. We need heritage organisations to celebrate our history. We need to return these incredible sites to the Australian people, and that's what we are talking about doing. And so this is a much better heritage outcome that we're talking about. It's a much better recognition of the Defence Force's history, but it's a much better outcome for the Australian Defence Force. To have these sites effectively withering on the vine, which is the situation that we inherited from the Coalition is completely unacceptable in what is a really challenging strategic circumstance that we are in right now. And we need serious governments making serious decisions in the context of a serious moment in our history. And we did not see that from the Coalition, but you are seeing that from the Albanese Labor Government.

JOURNALIST: Has there been any eviction notice for Victoria Barracks, or is that heresy?

MARLES: Look, in terms of the specifics of that, Army has clarified the position there. But let me be really clear about this: when we announced the Estate audit and the government's response to it earlier in the year, what we said was that we wanted Defence out of all of these sites, including Victoria Barracks Sydney, over the course of the next two years. We're a fair way into that period of time. It is the government's expectation, it is my expectation, that we are seeing Defence get out of those sites as soon as possible. I think the specifics that you've referred to have been clarified, but we do want to see people moving out of Victoria Barracks Sydney as soon as possible for those sites to then be handed over to the Department of Finance and then to take the time necessary to determine their future and to determine their sale. That is the process that is being gone through. And of course, in terms of heritage, which obviously applies to Victoria Barracks Sydney, all of these buildings are subject to an extensive heritage overlay. They are protected by law, none of these buildings are going to be bulldozed. They will be in fact return to the people of Australia to be properly celebrated. So it is our expectation that Defence moves out of these sites as quickly as possible. I think the specifics there have been clarified but we want to see this move ahead. 

JOURNALIST: Just on Victoria Barracks, last night Senator Jess Collins called you a coward for giving a verbal direction in regards to Victoria Barracks rather than turning up and making an announcement there in person. How do you respond to that?

MARLES: I think we need to be careful about the words we use. We own the words we use, but I think it's an ironic word to be used in the context of a Coalition government, which did not make any difficult decision in respect of the Defence estate for the near decade that it was in office, and left us with a situation that we were seeing hundreds of millions of dollars, which could be spent on Defence capability, which could be spent on making sure that our soldiers, sailors, and aviators have greater capability in their hands and are are better protected and defended. Instead, that money is being spent on sites that we do not use. Now, that's actually the legacy of the Coalition government because they did not have the courage to make these decisions. To be clear, I've been to Victoria Barracks Sydney a number of times since we made this announcement. Indeed, the announcement, the very first press conference we did the day after the announcement, I did at Victoria Barracks Sydney in person. So I've been there on a number of occasions. We'll continue to go there, so I mean I'm very present there, as I am in respect of the consultations that we've done around the country in relation to this, consultations, which in turn have been led by Assistant Minister Peter Khalil.

JOURNALIST: From October 1, personnel who join the permanent ADF will be extended from five years to 10 years. Why is that, and could that make it harder to recruit people?

MARLES: Well, I mean, we manage recruitment very carefully. We manage the service obligations very carefully, but I think the point to make in relation to recruitment is that in the last week we've just celebrated an incredible recruitment outcome. I mean, again, when we came to government after the near 10 years of the Coalition government, the Defence Force was actually shrinking. In the final year of the Coalition being in government, it shrunk by 1,400 personnel. In the last 12 months, it's grown by 8,100 personnel. The Defence Force is now at its full-time strength, at a quarter-of-a-century high. We are seeing recruitment rates which we haven't seen for a very long period of time, so we are actually investing in our people, making the critical decisions, so as to see that both recruitment is happening at a pace, but also retention. And again, I'd point out the separation rate has now dropped to 7.4% on an annual basis. That's well below the long-term average, and this is delivering us the people that we need. Because at the end of the day, as incredible as these platforms are behind us, the most incredible asset that the Defence Force has is its people.

JOURNALIST: With Angus Taylor's policy to take superannuation out to get a mortgage, I think specifically to buy a house, is that just pie in the sky stuff? What do you make of that?

MARLES: Well, I think that it's really clear that there is one party which has been defending and promoting superannuation throughout the moment that superannuation was first established during the Hawke and Keating years, and that is the Labor Party and Labor governments. And in turn, what you've seen from Coalition governments and indeed One Nation is a wholesale attack on superannuation. I mean, what is absolutely obvious from the conservative parties, from both the Coalition, the Liberals, the Nationals, and One Nation, is they are opposed to superannuation. Now, if you look at the Intergenerational Report that was released yesterday, there are a number of challenges that our country faces, as all countries do as we come through the coming decades. But one of the great assets that we have in terms of meeting those challenges is Australia's superannuation system, both in terms of what that does in providing security for people in their retirement, but also in terms of the pool of capital that it's building for our nation, which is really important in terms of the investment that our country needs, and we see that across the board. Superannuation is profoundly important. It is one of the great Labor achievements, and what we see from Angus Taylor, as we see from Pauline Hanson and the parties across the conservative side of politics, is a total failure to recognise that and a wholesale attack on superannuation. Thank you.

JOURNALIST: (indistinct) What impact did that have on inflation?

MARLES: Well, we are very mindful. A couple of points to make here. Since the outset of this conflict in Iran, we've obviously been very focused on fuel security for Australia, and the fact that we have more fuel in the country today than we did at the outbreak of the conflict in Iran says a lot about what has been achieved by our government in terms of ensuring fuel supplies here in Australia, and obviously I very much acknowledge the Prime Minister in this and Minister Bowen. During that period, we did provide relief in relation to fuel excise that was always intended to be temporary, but our principal focus in terms of managing this situation has been to manage fuel supply for our country, and we continue to do that. Inflation is a challenge that's being experienced around the world. And again, in terms of how we are managing the budget, how we're managing the economy, we have done this in a prudent way. We have been very careful managers of spending within the budget since we've come to government. That's been, I guess, shown by the two surpluses that we've delivered. But if you look at all the indicators in terms of how we are managing the fiscal environment relative to the trends and the projections that were put in place by the former Coalition government, we are well below that, saving our country billions of dollars in debt, and that is a contribution to trying to put downward pressure on inflation. But inflation is a challenge around the world, and we're not immune from it. Thank you.

ENDS