E&OE

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, authoritarian regimes around the world are flexing their muscles, whether it's in Russia, Iran or, of course, the military build-up of the Chinese Communist Party. It is clear that we are living in the most uncertain times since the Second World War, and the Prime Minister himself has made that point, the most dangerous times since the Second World War and in that context, it's incredibly disappointing that today, the Prime Minister has said that they will not increase defence spending to a level that's appropriate and necessary in order to implement their own plan. To implement their own plan. The Defence Strategic Review was handed down some time ago, and it is clear that the plan coming from that is underfunded in so many different ways. It is clear that we're seeing underfunding of the northern facilities in this country that are so important to ensuring that we have the deterrence and the peace we all want to see in the Indo Pacific. It's clear we're seeing underfunding of sovereign local manufacturing of guided weapons. It's clear we've seen underfunding of recruitment and traction of the necessary number of people into our military and in fact, so dire has this become that ASPI has told us, highly respected think tank, has told us that we are at risk of having a paper ADF. A paper Australian Defence Forces and this is a completely unsatisfactory situation in this context. We call on the government to make sure that this country is able to defend itself, and most importantly, is able to deter conflict in our region and ensure that we have the continued peace we all want to see. It is clear, as long as Anthony Albanese is Prime Minister, that we are not going to see the kind of funding that is absolutely necessary at this time. Now ultimately, this is about our sovereignty. It's about us being able to control our own destiny, but it is also essential to making sure we have the alliances that underpin that sovereignty and right now it's very clear that the United States sees real problems in the alliance with Australia. We have the AUKUS review proceeding over the next coming days, and we'll all await the outcome of that. But what's very clear is the Prime Minister has not been able to get a meeting with the President of the United States. He seems better positioned to get a meeting with the President of China than the President of the United States, and that is not what we need from a country or with a country that has underpinned the security of our region and the world for 70 years now. It is incumbent on this Prime Minister with urgency to build that relationship with the United States and to underpin and secure that important alliance which is so essential to our security and peace in our region. Happy to take questions.

 

JOURNALIST:

Mr Taylor, firstly, many of your own Liberal former colleagues who've been ambassadors or who are talking about the best way to deal with Donald Trump, say the most important thing is not to be bullied by the White House and to hold the ground. So the Prime Minister is saying he'll spend what needs to be spent on defence, and isn't he just doing exactly what the advice from your own colleagues has been, which is not sort of acquiescing to demands from the White House.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

You know, the Prime Minister should take advice from his own Defence Strategic Review because it laid out very clearly what we need to do as a nation.

 

JOURNALIST:

But I’m asking about your predecessors.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, no, well, what the point here is that his own Defence Strategic Review is underfunded. I mean, ASPI has told us that. Many other experts have told us this. This is not a matter of what the United States wants. This is a matter of what we need. This is the absolutely crucial point. This is about us. This is about our sovereignty. This is about controlling our own destiny and the Prime Minister is letting us down on this. Now, there's no question that one of the results of that is that he is putting the strength of this incredibly important alliance at risk. But this is not about being bullied. This is about doing the right thing for our great country, and that's what we want to see from the Prime Minister.

 

JOURNALIST:

If it really is about what we need, could you nominate for us a couple of the greatest need defence projects that will take up the tens of billions of dollars that you suggest we add to our defence budget each yeae?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Yeah, no, it's a great question. I think I've already started to answer that question. Labor’s own Defence Strategic Review laid out many of the needs we need as a country and to give you a sense of what that includes, it is clear we have to properly invest in the submarine facilities at Henderson, and it is also clear that right now that is underfunded. We know how important that is if AUKUS is going to be successful. We know we have to increase, step up the recruitment of people to our ADF. The government's own targets are not being met in terms of personnel recruitment, and we know there's many issues involved in that that need to be addressed by the government. We know we haven't made the progress we need on local guided weapons manufacture, and this is incredibly important. It's a project that the government committed to, and has made very little progress towards delivering. We know we need significant investment in drone and counter drone technology. We're only seeing just in the last week or so the power of getting those technologies right in terms of the actions that were taken by Israel in Iran and of course, we've seen much evidence of that in the Ukraine. So these are incredibly important projects. They are clearly underfunded by a government that is not taking the security of our nation and the peace in our region as seriously as they need to.

 

JOURNALIST:

Mr Taylor, we’re talking about tens of billions of dollars of extra funding if we're to get to 3% of GDP. Where will that … where would you like to see that money come from? Does it come from our aid budget? Do we take on more debt? How do we fund it?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, I've made the point many times that we went to the last election with a pathway to 3% of GDP. So you've seen that that's possible. Of course, every election cycle is different, and so it'll be a different plan next time around, but the security of our great country must come first. This is the most important and first duty of any good government and yet it is clear from expert after expert that this government is letting us down. There is no ambiguity about that. They are letting us down at a time which, as the Prime Minister himself has said, is the most uncertain, the most dangerous time since the Second World War. This government needs to get serious.

 

JOURNALIST:

Mr Taylor, just putting on a slightly different path. We've got a raft of changes coming through on July 1. Changes to paid parental leave, increases to super, energy bill relief as well. Are you concerned with the amount of money that is going out the door, and can the budget afford this?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, can I say we've always supported indexation of social security payments, and I think that is an important principle, but what we don't support is sustained periods of high inflation, which have made those numbers much bigger than they otherwise would have to have been and so the key for any government is to make sure they reduce the risk of future inflation. There's no question that those risks are still there. The fact that inflation has come down doesn't mean that prices have come down. Prices are way up from where they were, and that doesn't mean that there's not risk of future inflation, as many economists are telling us. So this is incredibly important and of course, the best way to secure the budgets of all Australians is to ensure that we fight and beat sustainably inflation in this country.

 

JOURNALIST:

Mr Taylor, your party leader explicitly opened the door to quotas at National Press Club earlier this week. Only a day later, you've come out explicitly opposing them. Are you worried you'll be seen undermining her?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

No, we absolutely agree on the importance of making sure we are attracting talented women, representatives from all of our communities across this great country to the Liberal Party. We need to do better at this, whether it's in our branches, whether it's our party executives, whether it's in the House of Representatives or the Senate. This is a top priority for the party, and we are in absolute, furious agreement on that. I mean there's been no ambiguity about my position on quotas for many, many years. I've been very clear about that, and there's a healthy and fruitful debate within the party about how best to make sure we achieve the outcome I've described. I mean, and this is more than just gender, this is making sure the party is representative of our wonderful communities across this great nation, and we need, as a party, to rebuild and work hard on exactly that. My career has been about attracting talented people to work with me and in the organisations that I'm part of, and I'm very proud with the team I've been able to work with even in the last term of Parliament, the current term of Parliament, one of them who is here today, but this is something … talent …

 

JOURNALIST:

[Interupts]

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Can I just finish? Talent, attraction and retention and mentoring is a job for everyone, every single day, and I tell you what, I will continue to champion it, because it's so, so important.

 

JOURNALIST:

Mr Taylor, as a follow up to that question, though, I've been in the press gallery for 17 years, which I think is longer than you've been in Parliament. All that time, that entire time, Liberals have been gnashing their teeth and tut tutting and saying, we need to get more women into parliament, and you're going backwards. Surely the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. So surely it's this … the Liberal Party's at a point where it actually might try something new.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, of course, we’ve got to try something new. The question is, what should that be James, and you seem to think you've got the answers. Maybe you do. I don't know, but look, let me tell you. Can I just say, I have dealt with this issue in many organisations I've been part with over the years. I have learnt over the fullness of time in other organisations that the key is having the right attraction processes, retention processes, and most importantly, mentoring processes, to attract, retain, excite, motivate, great people. That's what we have to do, James and all of you are part of organisations where I'm sure that's an imperative there too, and so that's what I'm a champion of. I don't think we have done that well, and I think that's why we have failed, as you rightly point out and so that's what I'll continue to champion.

 

JOURNALIST:

Mr Taylor, just on that, you talk about attraction, retention, mentoring, and you said, now and earlier today, you're a personal crusader for this. What personal KPIs have you set yourself?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Yeah, well, I've always sought to have people around me in my staff who are representative of the broader community, and there's real gender diversity and as I say, I think I'm, I’m very proud to have had extraordinary, extraordinary …

 

JOURNALIST:

And how about [inaudible]

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

… and to support others into the parliament that represent that as well. And I saw at the last election, of course, we had an extraordinary array of candidates. It was our failure that we weren't able to get more of them into the parliament and we need to do better. We need to do better in the future and this is diversity, not just in terms of gender, it's also in terms of religious beliefs and a whole range of different things as well. We have to do that. We really must. The question is, how to do it? I'm not a big believer in subverting democratic process. I think you've got to enable the democratic process and I think you can. I think you can, because I've done it before in my past life.

 

JOURNALIST:

I heard the Opposition Leader Sussan Ley calling herself a feminist in a podcast with James Massola. Perhaps the first senior Liberal woman who has self-identified as a feminist. Do you identify as a feminist?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, I'm a great champion for capable, talented women, let me tell you, and I always will be. I've got two wonderful, wonderful daughters who are capable, strong and talented …

 

JOURNALIST:

Are you a feminist?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

… and I have, well you know, many people like to define that in many different ways, so I'll leave that one for now, but I will always champion talented and capable women, and I always have, and it's something that I'm sure if you ask people who have worked with me, they'll tell you that this is something that I believe in very deeply, very strongly.

 

JOURNALIST:

What about policy making? This is something that was criticised under the last Opposition Leader, that the policy offering wasn't kind of as fully fledged as it could have been, because there wasn't enough debate. The party room has now agreed to have a new policy-making process. What's that going to look like? How will it be different?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, I think there's a couple of things about this. Number one is we do have to rebuild from the last election. We've got to learn from what worked and what didn't work and clearly, there was a lot that didn't work, and we do have to get onto policy development earlier and I tell you, one important area of policy that we're getting onto earlier is saying that this government needs to increase the level of defence spending and make sure every dollar of that defence spending is spent well at a time that is more uncertain than any time since the Second World War.

 

JOURNALIST:

But what about the process? Will members have more of a say?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Absolutely, absolutely and I think it's important they do. We had a discussion about that this morning. It's important they do, but we've also got to get onto it earlier, and that's why we are taking a strong position on an issue that really matters right now, on an issue that is in the debate, not just in Australia, but right around the world right now. This is the case because these authoritarian regimes are flexing their muscles, and that makes it the most uncertain time we're facing since the Second World War.

 

JOURNALIST:

Mr Taylor. Mr Taylor.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Someone who hasn’t had a question yet.

 

JOURNALIST:

I actually have two. I'll get to defence spending in a minute. I just want to follow up the earlier question. You say you're a champion for women, you always speak so highly about your daughters. Is there any reason you're not willing to use the word feminist when you describe yourself?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Look, it’s defined in many different ways, but my definition of my job as someone who has to be a champion for talent is that I always advocate for strong, capable people to come into the Liberal Party, to make a contribution, whatever contribution they can possibly make, whether it's in a branch, whether it's in the executive, whether it's as a member of parliament, we need more of that, not less, and I'll continue to be a champion for that. You can define that however you like, but that's the position I'll always take.

 

JOURNALIST:

Just on the second question sorry. Should the US be able to dictate how much Australia spends on defence?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

No. Absolutely not. We should dictate it on what is necessary for us to be in control of our own destiny and for us to make sure we are able to achieve peace through deterrence in our region. That is the measure. That is the measure. Now the United States, along with many others around the world, are saying very clearly the answer to that is it needs to be more than 2%. I agree with them on that, that our own Defence Strategic Review has said the same thing. Our own experts are saying the same thing, and so this government needs to take seriously the defence of this great nation. Thank you very much.

 

ENDS.