Interview, WA Defence Review

SUBJECTS: Land Forces 2026; AUKUS; Western Australia; Defence Industry; Army capability

JOURNALIST: Thank you very much, Deputy Prime Minister. Can you tell us about Land Forces 2026? Why is this particular iteration of the conference a standout for you?

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Well, Land Forces is a really important conference. It's a really important opportunity to showcase Australian defence industry in respect of what capability we bring to bear. There are 964 exhibitors at this Land Forces exhibition. 206 of them are from overseas, from 31 different countries. So we're not only seeing the best in Australia's defence industry, but we're seeing capability from right around the world. And really, this is about ensuring that we have the Australian Army at the cutting edge of technology in terms of the equipment that it uses, but also that we are showcasing the capability, the skills, the innovation which comes in Australia's defence industry.

JOURNALIST: And this is the first time Land Forces is actually in Western Australia, to my understanding, which makes it a unique proposition. Western Australia has a very unique industry as well to go with that. So, what do you think will be different about the composition of the people here and the opportunities that could potentially generate from this?

MARLES: Yeah, look, I think that'll be interesting to see. I mean, what we are seeing in a lot of ways is the significance of Western Australia in terms of Australia's defence and in terms of Australia's defence industry. Really, when you look at WA in so many ways, it is the front door to the world with which we engage, and it's from WA that we see so many of our trade routes, our economic connection with the world, and it's really the protection of those which goes to the most consequential strategic risk and strategic challenge that we have as a nation. So, in many ways, the geostrategic ground zero for our country is right here in Perth. And so, I think having Land Forces here in Perth in that context is really important. As a result of all of that, we are seeing Western Australian defence industry specifically growing. We're seeing that in and around the maritime space with the Henderson Defence Precinct through the establishment of the Submarine Rotation Force – West of HMAS Stirling. But a lot of the technologies that are developed in that context have an application when it comes to the land domain as well. So I think it's going to be really interesting to see what's specifically on offer in WA from a land perspective.

JOURNALIST: Yes, and also about AUKUS. If you could tell us also about any updates and in terms of the investment and the progress and, you know, where you see things transpiring over the course of the next six months.

MARLES: Well, when we think about AUKUS and we think about the evolving operational capability in respect of our future nuclear-powered submarine capability, that is grounded right here in Western Australia. The Submarine Rotation Force – West, which will begin next year at HMAS Stirling, is really the beginning of seeing operational capability here in Australia. In some ways, we've already seen that through an increased number of visitations of both US and UK nuclear-powered submarines to HMAS Stirling. But all of this is on track. We're seeing an incredible uplift in the base at HMAS Stirling. It's about $8 billion which is planned to be spent over the course of a 10-year period in upgrading that base, which is a major upgrade of it. But we're also seeing a whole lot of work occur over the Henderson Defence Precinct. That's where we will see the major sustainment of our future nuclear-powered submarines, but it's also where we will see continuous naval shipbuilding evolve here in Western Australia through the building of our next general-purpose frigate class, the Mogami-class, that we will be doing with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Now, all of that equals a massive injection of jobs into the Western Australian economy. I mean, in the fullness of time, we expect there will be 6,000 people working at the Henderson Defence Precinct. Across the state, we expect there to be 10,000 jobs through defence industry, and that alone represents the biggest economic diversification of the Western Australian economy that we've seen in decades.

JOURNALIST: Are you confident with the timetables for the execution of these development programs and infrastructure programs?

MARLES: Yes, I am. They're challenging, and they need to be challenging. But I am, and we're demonstrating that in terms of meeting the first of those, which is the establishment of the Submarine Rotation Force – West from the end of next year. And that is when we said it would occur when we first announced the Optimal Pathway back in 2023. We're on track to that occurring. We've got service personnel from the United States Navy there right now, readying the site for the Submarine Rotation Force – West from the end of next year. So that is all happening on time. It is very much a challenge, as it is to see the development and the evolution of the Henderson Defence Precinct, but we're confident that we're getting there, and we need to get there because this is a really important capability for the country in what is an increasingly challenging world.

JOURNALIST: We often hear you talk about the geostrategic environment, which everyone would acknowledge is very dangerous and unstable. Northern Australia, particularly north-west Western Australia, is part, obviously, of Northern Australia, so could you give us an indicator of what your plans are with Northern Australia, how that also has implications for north-west WA?

MARLES: Yeah, I mean it is Northern Australia, but it's very much north-west. Really, if you think about the flank of our continent from Darwin at one end through to Cape York at the other, what you get there is really the front door of our country. I mean, what we get from that flank of Australia, the continent, is looking towards the most populated country in the world, India, the second most populated, China, the sixth most populated, Indonesia. I think this is where most of our trade occurs. This is where our strategic operations need to take place, and so we are investing, as we've said, in the naval bases. But as you pointed out, we're doing more in relation to our northern airfields, which are very much concentrated in the north-west. So that is Darwin and Tindal in the Northern Territory. We're doing more in Curtin, which is Derby, Learmonth, which is at Exmouth, and Cocos (Keeling) Islands as well. And upgrading those airfields is really important in being able to project our airfields. But Land Forces have a role as well in WA. I mean, a major component of our special forces, the SAS, is based here in Perth, and so, you know, across all the domains, WA matters.

JOURNALIST: And when you talk about Army capability, of course, you talk about Austal and its involvement in some of the projects. Can you tell us about how you view the future, particularly Army and the amphibious capability area as well?

MARLES: Well, what we are seeking to do generally across our Defence Force is build a Defence Force that can project, because what's really clear is that our strategic risk, the geography of our national security, actually lies well beyond our coastline. We need to be giving pause for any adversary that might seek to coerce us through disrupting our sea lines of communication, for example. We need to be making our contribution to the peace, the security and stability of the Indo-Pacific, the region in which we live. All of that requires us to get out there, and so we are doing more in terms of protecting our Navy, more in terms of protecting our Air Force in the way I've described, but more in terms of protecting our Army as well, and that does mean having a much more amphibious Army. What we are seeing happen at the Henderson Defence Precinct right now is the construction of Landing Craft Medium and Heavy. This will be a transformational capability for the Australian Army in terms of our ability to engage in an amphibious context, to engage in a littoral domain, and to protect our Army, and that's really important in terms of the whole focus of the Defence Force that we're seeking to build.

JOURNALIST: And when you think about the actual threats to Australian national security, are you able to summarise what they fundamentally are in a broad categorical sense?

MARLES:  I mean, our most consequential strategic risk is not invasion of the continent. What it is, is any adversary that would seek to coerce us specifically through disrupting our economic connection to the world, our sea lines of communication. Now, in a way, we've seen a kind of taste of that this year. We've got a war or a conflict over 10,000 kilometres from here, one that we're not a part of. That's not directed against us. But what it has done is impacted a body of water, which in turn has had a significant impact on the price of petrol bowsers here in Australia, but our economy more generally and the work of mine. That highlights how important our sea lines of communication are. Our most consequential risk lies in those being disrupted by some adversary that might seek to coerce us in that way, and so that's why it's really important that we need a Defence Force that has the capability to project, that has the capability to give any adversary pause for thought that might seek to try and do that. It's also really important then to understand that when you look at our trading routes and where they go through South-East Asia and through the north-east Indian Ocean – the peace, the security, the stability of those regions is completely central to Australia's own national security. So we need to make our contribution with our friends and our partners in those regions to provide for deterrence, to provide for peace and stability and security in those regions, and that's the Defence Force that we are seeking to build.

JOURNALIST:  There is also a move among some of the Western democracies to look at middle-power diplomacy and, you know, obviously, change in the world order. How do you see Australia engaging with countries like Canada, UK, New Zealand in any context that's maybe outside the current strategic parameters we have?

MARLES:  Well, it's a good question, and I think what you see is actually—

JOURNALIST: Like Canada, for instance.

MARLES: Well, I mean, we've had a long relationship with New Zealand in every single way, but if you take a country like Canada, who we've been very close to, we've been good friends, if you like, in the (inaudible) nations. What we are now seeing evolve over the last couple of years is a strategic dimension to that relationship. What we're seeing with the sale of Over-The-Horizon radar, the network is the biggest Australian defence export in our country's history. That is building a strategic relationship with Canada. If you look at the UK, our oldest relationship, again, if you go back 10 years there wasn't a huge strategic dimension to that. Today, it's a deeply strategic relationship, obviously with AUKUS, but much more. And we are very focused on our relationship in a strategic sense with the UK.

But it's also countries of our region. When you look at the Treaty on Common Security that we've now signed with Indonesia, the alliance that we have signed with Papua New Guinea, we are working on a security agreement with the Solomon Islands. We've signed a security agreement with Vanuatu, the Nakamal Agreement. We've now signed an alliance with Fiji, and we've got a long-standing alliance with New Zealand. Of course, France is a NATO country with whom we have a growing relationship in a strategic sense.I mean, that is the ring of countries around Australia, and we are doing more in terms of building those relationships in a defence, security and strategic sense than has ever occurred in our country's history. So it's not just with countries like Canada and the UK, but it's actually the countries of our region, with Japan, with India. I mean, all of these are countries where we have a growing strategic defence relationship. And to bring it back to what's going on now with Land Forces, Land Forces is really important. The Chief of Army Symposium, which is really our most important act of defence diplomacy in the Army space, is happening in conjunction with Land Forces. There are 25 different countries participating in that, and that's a really important event in terms of building those relationships and engaging (inaudible).