Radio Interview, ABC Radio National

SUBJECTS: HMAS Leeuwin incident, supporting Fiji to acquire Bluebottle Uncrewed Surface Vessels, Defence reforms, military aid to Ukraine.

SALLY SARA: Well, to Federal politics now, and Australia's Navy Chief Vice Admiral Matt Buckley has ordered checks across the fleet after a recording device was found on a vessel docked in Queensland. The ABC understands it had been placed in a women's bathroom. An Australian Defence Force member has been identified as a person of interest and is assisting with inquiries. 

Vice Admiral Buckley has labelled the incident a despicable betrayal of trust, and in a statement assured personnel that any perpetrator will be held to account. 

Pat Conroy is the Minister for Defence Industry and Minister for Pacific Island Affairs and joins me now. Minister, welcome back to Breakfast. 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY, PAT CONROY: Thanks for having me, Sally. 

SALLY SARA: How concerning is this incident from the Government's perspective? 

MINISTER CONROY: It's a reprehensible act, a breach of trust, and it's completely unacceptable, and I join with Admiral Matt Buckley in his condemnation of it. It's important that we know that the military police are investigating it right now, and that an ADF individual is assisting the military police with their inquiries. 

SALLY SARA: What's your understanding of the time frame for that investigation? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, that's really up to them to gather the evidence and make a decision around all the facts. We're not going to rush them; they're going to do their job properly. We owe it to all the service personnel involved who have been impacted by this despicable act. But this is completely unacceptable, and we need to obviously make sure that this never happens again.

SALLY SARA: Vice Admiral Buckley is talking about a sweep right across the fleet to look for similar issues. How long will that take? 

MINISTER CONROY: Again, that is occurring right now. It's happening as fast as possible. I'm not going to get into timelines for how long that will take. My understanding so far is this incident refers to a single recording device. But Admiral Buckley is doing absolutely the right thing in making sure that there are no other devices of this manner on any Naval vessel in the fleet. 

SALLY SARA: Why does this keep happening, these kinds of incidents that undermine the safety, particularly of female members of the ADF? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, this is obviously a cultural issue that we're grappling with and will continue to grapple with as we see more and more female Australians serve in the ADF, I think one in five ADF personnel are women. They need to be treated with respect and dignity like all service personnel, and the culture has to change to accommodate that. 

There was obviously a key finding in the Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide, and Minister Keogh is launching a women's veterans’ strategy today that obviously deals with other issues associated with women's service. So, this is a cultural challenge that the ADF leadership and the political leadership is up for, and we'll continue to make sure that cultural change is occurring. 

SALLY SARA: What's your message to young Australian women and their families if these women are considering joining the ADF when this cultural challenge remains, and we see incidents happening again and again? 

MINISTER CONROY: My message is we want you to serve, we want you to serve, we want to make sure you can serve in a safe and respectful environment, and we're working very hard to do that, but we're really grateful for anyone who sticks their hand up to serve in the Australian Defence Force to help defend our country. 

SALLY SARA: Tasmanian independent senator and veteran Jacqui Lambie says defence should clean up its culture and is calling for an independent body to be established outside of the ADF to deal with these sorts of incidents. Is that something that the Government would consider? 

MINISTER CONROY: I've got a lot of respect for Senator Lambie and her passionate commitment to this cause. Her private legislation, private members' legislation hasn't [indistinct] unintended consequences that might mean it's not the right pathway, and we've got to arrange ‑‑ 

SALLY SARA: What do you mean? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, details of how that would run is something that Minister Keogh is dealing with, but what we are committed to is making sure that the culture is there that's safe and respectful, and we've got a range of measures in place to allow us to do that. 

SALLY SARA: On a separate issue, today you're announcing that Australia will work with Fiji to acquire uncrewed ocean drones known as Bluebottles to support Fiji's maritime security. How will Australia help Fiji to get these ocean drones? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, we're building a factory; in fact, I'm opening the factory this morning to produce these Bluebottles. We've allocated a $176 million contract for our own Bluebottles. We're running over ten now, and our fleet will be over 50 when that's finished. That will be the largest fleet of uncrewed maritime surveillance vessels in the world, and we're also acquiring some for Fiji. 

These are brilliant vessels. They're small yacht-sized dinghies that run on solar, wave and wind power. They're fitted with radars, cameras and sonar, and they've got a great ability to detect and track maritime vessels and submarines at long distances. 

So, this is Aussie innovation, basing technology at the University of New South Wales with boat builders from the Hunter Valley, and it's a great example of us working with the Pacific to make our region safer, to obviously deal with military threats but also the scourge of drug trafficking which affects all countries in the Pacific. 

SALLY SARA: Minister, yesterday you told the ABC that "the rot has to stop" after a Freedom of Information document showed Defence officials behind Australia's flagship missile program, the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Group, racked up at least $15.6 million in financial and procurement blunders. Should Australians be alarmed by basic accounting and administrative issues that have cost taxpayers millions of dollars? 

MINISTER CONROY: Well, they should be assured that we're reforming Defence. This is an example of why we need to reform the Defence organisation, and we're undertaking the biggest reform to the Defence organisation since 1979. 

Let's be clear about what occurred here. The last government, the Abbott Government, sacked thousands of skilled project managers from the Department of Defence and outsourced project management to private sector contractors. Those private sector contractors were responsible for these procurement errors and are no longer working on that team, and we're rolling the Guided Weapons Group into the Defence delivery agency that will be stood up on 1 July next year, staffed by skilled public servants and ADF personnel who will be the best project managers in the Commonwealth. 

We're bringing that capability within the public service because we shouldn't have to rely on external contractors to deliver critical defence capability to the extent that the Liberal Government allowed to happen.

SALLY SARA: Minister, on a separate issue, Ukraine's Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko is expected to meet with Greens leader David Shoebridge today. This meeting comes after the Nine newspapers reported that Senator Shoebridge and his party said his party doesn't support military aid to Ukraine. Does the Australian Government have a message to Ukrainian Australians on this? 

MINISTER CONROY: My message to Ukrainian Australians is that we stand with you in supporting the people of Ukraine in their valiant struggle against Vladimir Putin's illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine. We're supporting them through $1.8 billion in assistance, including over $1.6 billion in military aid. 

I was appalled by Senator Shoebridge's comments. Why he's decided to side with Vladimir Putin and deny the people of Ukraine assistance in their hour of need is beyond me. What we're seeing here is an example of the extreme left and extreme right meeting in the middle in a circle. Just as Pauline Hanson called Vladimir Putin a strong leader, why Senator Shoebridge is, hopefully unintentionally, aiding and abetting Putin's invasion of Ukraine by denying critical military assistance to the armed services of Ukraine is beyond me. It's appalling, and it's an action of a deeply unserious leader. 

SALLY SARA: Just finally on a separate matter, what's your reaction to the news from the White House that it will not go ahead with the proposed live stream of the execution of a convicted mass shooter who killed US troops? This execution will take place in December, but the President has announced that the live stream won't go ahead. What do you think? 

MINISTER CONROY: I welcome that decision, quite frankly. I don't think we need to get into the details, but I think live streaming of such an event poses lots of challenges to people watching it, and obviously I think we've all learned once something gets out onto the Internet it's there forever, and I certainly don't want to be in a situation where anyone sees those sorts of incidents.

SALLY SARA: Minister, thank you for joining me this morning. 

MINISTER CONROY: Thank you very much. 

ENDS