Topics: Australia’s threat environment; AUSMIN; AUKUS; Labor’s failure to increase defence spending; Anika Wells’ expense scandal.

E&OE

 

CHRIS KENNY: 

Angus, thanks for joining us again. I would have thought the good news in this latest strategy from the U.S. is that it remains firmly committed to the East Asian and Pacific area, our area, so they are committed here to this part of the world and maintaining stability here. But the bad news is they want their allies unsurprisingly to contribute more to this task, and that means they want countries like Australia to spend more on defence. Is that a reasonable demand from Washington?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: 

It's absolutely a reasonable demand. I don't think it's bad news. I think it's a reality, Chris, because we're facing the most dangerous strategic circumstances since the Second World War. The Chinese Communist Party is militarizing at an unprecedented rate, engaging in dangerous and provocative activity in the South China Sea and elsewhere to us and our allies. We need strength if we're going to continue to see peace, and that strength from Australia and our allies. We are underfunding defence. We are at risk of having a paper defence force, a paper ADF, according to ASPI, a highly respected think tank in this area. And the Americans are rightly echoing the concern that we are not funding our defence force as we need to, and we are seeing the consequences of that now: with under-sustained, under-maintained equipment, under-maintained warships, under-maintained combat aircraft -- and this is a real problem for us in these dangerous times.

 

CHRIS KENNY: 

Yeah, there's a commitment to AUKUS too from the US. So there's good news there, but Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles are only days away from having their annual AUSMIN talks with Peter Hegseth and of course, Marco Rubio, the US heavy hitters as Secretary of State and Secretary of War, as they call it, under the Trump administration. Will Penny Wong and Richard Marles have to turn up with something on offer? Will they have to offer more at that meeting next week?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: 

Well, I think the Americans are going to expect it, but I think the Australian people expect a defence force which is strong and capable, and our war fighters, most importantly, deserve better Chris. I mean, our war fighters are not getting the support they need, they're not getting the equipment they need. We're seeing dramatic changes in the way conflict has unfolded around the world. We've seen that in the Ukraine with drone warfare -- which has just changed beyond anything anyone expected -- in Israel as well.  I got the chance to see that a few weeks ago, and in the United States just a few weeks ago as well. I was looking at the way new technology is being used in defence. We  have a long way to go, whether it's drones, whether it's missiles, whether it's electronic warfare, cyber, all of these areas deserve and need serious investment, and if we don't have that, our war fighters won't be able to do the job they need to do, and that has got to be a top priority right now.

 

CHRIS KENNY: 

Just quickly before I let you go, you've seen a few politicians fall by the wayside, lose their jobs, at least temporarily because of travel entitlements in the past: Bronwyn Bishop, famously, even Susan Lee back in the day. Do you think that Labor's Anika Wells will survive her latest scandal?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: 

Well, I think what she did doesn't pass the pub test Chris, and I think Australians will agree on that. I mean paying for your family to go on a ski holiday, that's not what family reunion money is for and budget is for. It is for a very different purpose than that. So whether or not it's according to the rules, it certainly isn't according to the pub test, and I think she needs to stand accountable for that.

 

CHRIS KENNY: 

Angus Taylor, thanks. Thanks so much for joining us. Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor there.