Topics: Marles US visit, Pete Hegseth, defence spending, AUKUS, Iran, IRGC terror listing

 

E&OE

 

QUESTION:

 

The Deputy Prime Minister in Washington – reports are that it didn't go too well with the meetings, over there? 

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Yeah, well, we haven't had an official readout. I would certainly like to know what went on at that meeting. We're glad there was a meeting. There certainly hasn't been a meeting between the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of this country and that’s unacceptable at a time when there's a lot of questions about the AUKUS agreement. This is an important, this is a crucial alliance. It's underpinned the peace in our region since the Second World War. Our relationship with the United States is one that is incredibly important, not just to our past but to our future. We all want to see peace in the Indo-Pacific into the future and that means having strong alliances with countries like the United States, but when our leaders haven't even met to discuss the very real issues that have got to be worked through, AUKUS is underfunded, our ADF is underfunded. There is a long line of experts saying this. Kim Beazley, the former Labor Defence Minister, has made this point. We haven't seen any readout as to whether we're any closer to having a meeting between the Prime Minister and the President, but what we do know is that Labor needs to properly fund our Defence Force, properly fund AUKUS and get a meeting with the United States, the President of the United States to work through these important issues.

 

QUESTION:

 

Just based on the survey – or the report – that was out a few days ago talking about Pillar 2 needing more funding, it needs to be more focused, more narrow. Obviously, you'd assume that those sorts of issues would have started coming up as Pillar 2 starts to kick in.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Well absolutely right, I mean that CSIS report that came out a couple of days ago was a real wake-up call. It was a wake-up call, because it made the point that we don't have the readiness we need to have. It made the point there's more rhetoric than readiness and that's completely unacceptable at a time which is the most dangerous since the Second World War. We are seeing authoritarian regimes flexing their muscles around the world. We've seen it with Russia. We're certainly seeing it in the Middle East, and we've seen what's happening in the Middle East here in Australia, something that many wouldn't have expected and we're of course seeing it with the biggest military build-up being driven by the Chinese Communist Party in history. So, this is a dangerous time, we need strength, we need our Defence Force to be properly funded, we need readiness. The Defence Minister has ditched the official preparedness reports, seriously, we've got to get serious about this and that is in the interests of peace, that's the purpose of the exercise.

 

QUESTION:

 

On that defence spending, Pete Hegseth has said in Europe our allies are paying 5% now our allies in the Indo-Pacific are stepping up to do the same. Does that sound like he's put the hard word on Australia in this meeting to increase that spending?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Yeah, well it's a good question. We haven't seen a readout, but I would be surprised if they didn't. I would be very surprised if they didn't. But the point is we need to get our spending to an appropriate level because that's right for Australia. That is the right thing for our country. It’s the right thing for peace in our region. It's the right thing for strength of democratic countries like us in the Indo-Pacific.  That's why we need to do it. You know, we're going to achieve ongoing peace in our region through deterrence and strength of us and our allies, and that has to be the priority of the government. It's clearly not the priority of the government and there is a long list of people making that point.

 

QUESTION:

 

Just on the Iran thing that's happened with the expulsion of the ambassador and the listing of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corp as a terrorist organisation. The Opposition's been saying that this is long overdue but is that a fair criticism because you guys were calling for this back in 2019, you were in power then and nothing really happened.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Well let's be clear, we've been asking for it for several years and it hasn't happened, and I'll tell you one thing that happened that made it very clear that this is a dangerous regime and a dangerous organisation, the IRGC - October 7th.

And let's be clear, the Iranian Government and the IRGC were funding, arming and training Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis. I mean there's no ambiguity about that, and now it's here in our country. We don't expect these things to reach our country, but they have because this is an evil organisation and the attacks on Israel on October 7th were monstrous and they were supported by this regime.

 

 

ENDS.