Topics:  Hamas, Palestinian recognition, defence spending, US-Australia alliance

 

E&OE

 

CHRIS KENNY:

 

Let's go to the Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor now who joins us from the Sydney CBD. Good to talk to you again Angus. You were one of the first people to point out, as I did, on Monday that this recognition by Anthony Albanese of a non-existent Palestinian state is a clear reward to Hamas for October the 7th. So, today's message from Hamas wouldn't have surprised you but tell us what you think it means for Australia and our diplomacy.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Well, that's absolutely right Chris and of course we all want to see an end to this tragedy we're seeing in the Middle East and Israel; but the truth of the matter is what we've seen from this Labor government is a shameful moral fail. Where they are rewarding terrorism, rewarding Hamas and it's just quite extraordinary, isn't it, that one of the co-founders of Hamas has come out and praised the Government's decision to recognise Palestine. That is not the kind of support that good policy should be getting because it isn't the right answer. We do support a two-state solution. We'd like to move towards a two-state solution, but there's very clear preconditions that have to be met before that can be achieved, starting with a peace agreement, release of hostages, demilitarisation of Hamas, Hamas having no role in a future government for Palestine. And none of those assurances can be given right now by Abbas or anyone else for that matter. And that's clear in the comments that have been made both by the co-founder of Hamas, but also Marco Rubio who's made a similar set of comments.

 

CHRIS KENNY:

 

The terrorist alert in this country at the moment is probable. Yet we have a Prime Minister who has said words and taken a position that is seen as a reward, and accepted as a reward, by one of the world's most bloodthirsty Islamist terrorist groups. Does that concern you?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

It concerns me greatly Chris. I went onto Sky just minutes after the Prime Minister made his announcement earlier this week and made exactly that point. This is rewarding terrorism. We cannot afford to reward terrorism. Have we forgotten the terrorism that we have lived through over decades? And these terrorists are delighted. Delighted. Hamas is delighted with the decision that the Government has made. So, it is a shameful, moral fail by the Government. They are making an egregious error here. We all want to see an end to the atrocious tragedy that we have seen in the Middle East, but this is not the pathway through.

 

CHRIS KENNY:

 

I want to get to your new portfolio of defence and the real challenge for this nation. And there was a fantastic special aired here on Sky on Tuesday, on Monday night, The War Cabinet hosted by Chris Uhlmann. But a great collection of brains talking about what we need to do in this country from both sides of politics and from the bureaucracy. Here's the former Labor Defence Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon:

 

“In 10 years’ time, they'll be spending twice what we were when they came to office, but it's clearly not going to be enough.”

 

Yeah, and there was also expertise on hand about the changing nature of warfare and what our challenges are there:

 

“We know in Australia, that actively, Chinese military cyber spies are actively probing our civilian critical infrastructure, looking for weaknesses and looking for ways to get in and hide and bide, potentially for high impact sabotage if relations deteriorate in the region.”

 

Now to summarise an hour of intelligent and divergent television, there's a bit of a consensus there that A, we have to spend a lot more, a lot quickly on defence, B, that China is a huge strategic threat in our region and C, that everything hinges for us on the US Alliance. How are these things being managed at the moment under Albanese?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Well, can I say I agree with all three of those points, Chris. I agree strongly with all three of them.  And Labor is failing on all three. They're not prepared to have an upfront discussion with the Australian people about the risk of domination of the Indo-Pacific by the Chinese Communist Party and the PLA. I mean, live-fire exercises off the south coast of New South Wales and the Government has nothing serious to say about it. I mean, this is completely unacceptable. Their spending profile is at two percent of GDP, but we've already committed to three. I know this is difficult at a time like this to find that money, but we have no choice. This is what we must, we absolutely must do. And we need to have an Australian Defence Force that is prepared, that is agile, that has the people it needs, that has the sovereign manufacturing capability it needs, missile manufacturing, drone and counter drone manufacturing. The emerging technologies that we are seeing are playing such a critical role in conflicts around the world. The objective here of course is peace Chris. We should always remember that: deterrence through peace. But we're not going to do that without a strong alliance with the United States, and this is a Government where the Prime Minister hasn't even had a face-to-face meeting with the President of the United States. That's completely unacceptable. 

 

CHRIS KENNY:

 

It's deeply worrying at the moment. Thanks for joining us, Angus Taylor. Really appreciate it. Angus Taylor who is now the Shadow Defence Minister.

 

ENDS.