E&OE

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

We're joined by the Shadow Defence Minister, Angus Taylor. Angus, good morning.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Stephen. Great to be with you.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

It's been a while. Good to have you back. This is an interesting situation here that Scott Morrison, who was, I guess you'd say, the Australian architect of AUKUS, is downplaying this review, saying this is just business as usual. Richard Marles is saying he knew about it weeks ago, but didn't bother to tell anybody. The UK recently did a review. Are you concerned about what this review might find?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, I'm concerned about the future of AUKUS. It needs to succeed. It's incredibly important to peace in our region. Peace is achieved through deterrence, and this is a hugely important part of achieving that and so any risk to AUKUS is something we should all be concerned about, because the price we will pay if AUKUS falls over is very high. So, we now learn that Richard Marles did know about this weeks ago. He didn't, as you rightly say, it didn't bother to tell anybody, but there's many questions that haven't been answered. For instance, is the Labor government's unwillingness to commit additional spending to defence, one of the reasons why this review has been triggered? Will the Prime Minister meet with Donald Trump face to face and start to nut these issues through? What are the detailed Terms of Reference for the review? What's it going to cover, and are we going to step up to achieve what is necessary to achieve to make sure AUKUS is a success? This is an incredibly important alliance. We have to make it work, Stephen, and it's our commitment as an Opposition to do what's necessary on a bipartisan basis to achieve exactly that.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

So how do you do that? Because, I mean, at the end of the day, you've got to try and sell the benefits of AUKUS to the United States, or the government does. But as an Opposition, how do you assist in that, that endeavor?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we'll continue to make the case for AUKUS, and we must. It is a good arrangement and the right arrangement to ensure we get peace in our region through deterrence. We make sure we have the strength here in the Indo Pacific that is so necessary. And as the Prime Minister puts it, the most dangerous time in our region since the Second World War and so, this is incredibly important. It's also important for the United States to have a presence here, a submarine presence here in Australia, and that's what they will get in Western Australia at Stirling and so making that case, not just about the importance for us and for our region, but the importance for the United States as well, I think, is extremely important, and that's what the Prime Minister must do when he meets with Donald Trump, if indeed he does. The fact that we don't see when this meeting is going to occur should concern us. It's incredibly important our Prime Minister build that relationship with the President so we can work through these difficult issues.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Angus, what do you think is more of a concern to the United States our lack of defence spending, or the flippant responses from the Prime Minister to calls for increases because we've had almost every expert in Australia, including the government's own think tank ASPI, saying we need to spend more on defence. We need to spend it now, not decades down the track. We've now had the US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, say we'd like you to increase your defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, which is, we should admit that it's half a percent higher than most other people are saying. The response from the Prime Minister is almost like, well, you're not the boss of me. You can't tell me what to do rather than say, well yes or no, for whatever reason.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Yeah. Well, I mean, this is why we think he needs to take these requests seriously, but we need to spend more on defence, not because we're being asked to do it, but because it's the right thing for us to do.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Yeah.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

I mean, we need to ensure that we don't have what ASPI has described as potential to be a paper ADF, and we've got to have better than a paper ADF. We've got to move beyond the rhetoric, to get to readiness, to delivery, to standing on our own two feet with sovereign capability, to making sure we've got the agility, which means drone and counter drone capability, missile capability. So sovereign manufacturing of missile capability, all of these things, by the way Labor has committed to, but they made little or no progress on and that's why this is so important.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Two elections in a row, though, the Prime Minister has promised to do politics differently. Do you have any confidence that you will be able to work with him in a bipartisan manner? Richard Marles seems to be a little bit more sensible on this stuff. Do you think you can work with the Defence Minister to try and come up with a unified position on this?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, I'm making a very strong point here that I'm prepared to do it. Andrew Hastie always sought to do it. I will do exactly the same, making sure that Australians are safe, that our country is safe and secure. We have peace in our region through strength in our ADF is incredibly important to every single one of us, and so it will be a priority for me. As I say, we'll do everything we can, everything in our power, to work with Labor to make sure those outcomes are achieved.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

So as far as coming up with a Coalition policy on defence spending. How do you arrive at that? Do you wait to see whether or not this AUKUS review is being used as leverage by the US, or are you formulating a policy now as to how much we actually need to spend and what we need to spend it on?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we, of course, went to the last election saying that we'd increase defence spending to 3% and we must get to that. I mean, that is very clear. The experts are telling us that countries across the West developed world are doing that or more, indeed, in some cases and so, this must be a priority, and we must find a pathway to do it. We, of course, will announce policies over the coming months and years, as is appropriate, and we should do it in a timely way. But look, it has to be a priority to make sure that our incredible defence force is properly funded, that it does have the delivery that is necessary, it can stand on its own two feet, that it’s got the agility needed in a modern world where we're seeing new technologies changing the way defence forces have to work, and that we have the people we need, and it's clear we're well short of that right now. We're not getting the people we need into our ADF, and we need to fix that.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

So, you, as the alternate Defence Minister, do you make direct representations to Peter Hegseth to try and speak to him directly and start building that relationship?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, look, I'm working my way through stakeholders across the country and across the world now, and I'll continue to do that over the coming weeks and months, and that is a priority, Stephen, because it's important they understand that there are many issues here on which there is bipartisanship and that they can trust in an alliance with Australia. So, I have an important role to play in that, and I understand that well, and I'll continue to do that and it has to be a priority, because whilst there are areas of difference here, and there's clearly an area of difference on defence spending, there are areas where it's important we work together to ensure that we're safe and secure in our wonderful country.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Angus, I'm going to let you go without asking you about leadership speculation this morning.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Great Stephen. Thank you.

 

ENDS.