Topics: USS America LHA-6; Australia-US alliance; AUKUS; Middle East conflict; G7; President Trump meeting; power prices rising under Labor

 

E&OE   

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

What a huge welcome to the crew of the USS America. I was privileged to come through the heads on the USS America a short time ago, and it highlighted to me the strength of the alliance between the United States and Australia. That strength has spanned many, many years across all major wars and of course, it includes the ANZUS Treaty, Five Eyes, and of course, now AUKUS and it's incredibly important that we strengthen this alliance, that we make sure that we together secure peace in the Indo-Pacific through strength, through capability and through jointly working together and it's a real privilege to see how well Australia is working with the US today. We saw Australian crew on board of the USS America, and it's incredibly important that we continue to nurture that relationship. It is also important we properly fund defence. We make sure that the AUKUS relationship both Pillar 1 and Pillar 2, the subs, as well as the technology sharing continues strong into the future. This review that is proceeding, we call on the government to make sure that they engage with the United States to ensure that the AUKUS is successful into the future. We also think it is enormously important that the Prime Minister sit down with the President of the United States, talk with him face to face, build that relationship and strengthen the alliance. That is a top priority for this country, and we need to see it happen as quickly as possible, secure that meeting immediately.

 

JOURNALIST:

Mr Taylor, what anxieties do you have from what you're seeing in the Middle East right now?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

We are concerned about the escalation, but we also call on Iran to cease its support of Hamas and Hezbollah. It's completely unacceptable, and we must see Iran ceasing any work on nuclear weapons. It's completely unacceptable as well.

 

JOURNALIST:

Are Australians right to be anxious about what they're seeing?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well we are concerned about the escalation and look, can I say that any Australians who are there, they should take notice and take heed of the official warnings. It's obviously a very dangerous situation there right now.

 

JOURNALIST:

Mr Taylor, it seems like the Prime Minister hasn't locked in a meeting yet and Richard Marles, only a short time ago, was very clear about that, not committing to telling us much at all. Is that disappointing to hear and if he can't get a meeting with Trump on the sidelines of G7, should he fly down to Washington DC?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well he should do whatever is necessary to get a meeting with the President at this time. It's enormously important. We need to see this review strengthening AUKUS not weakening it. We need to see the alliance strengthened not weakened and central to that is personal relationships and so it's crucial for the Prime Minister to meet with the President.

 

JOURNALIST:

You mentioned that it's a top priority for Australians to seek a meeting with President Trump, but given the situation in the Middle East, do you think that Australia has dropped to the bottom of President Trump's priority?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, I think it's important for us to continue to advocate for the importance of AUKUS for the Indo-Pacific, for making sure we have peace in our region and advocacy of that is a priority and we need to see the Prime Minister doing that. Look, at the end of the day, the United States gains great benefit from having a presence here in Australia. It's good for us. It's good for the United States. It's important that the Prime Minister advocate that to the President and ensure that we get this meeting as quickly as possible.

 

JOURNALIST:

Just shifting gears. The energy prices are going to go up for people in New South Wales over the next year by $268. Similar figures that across the east coast. The government's energy bill rebates are only $150. What should government do to relieve power bill pain? We've seen this approvement of the North West Shelf gas project. Do they need to look at gas and what else would you recommend they do?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, the energy crisis continues unabated under Labor and under Chris Bowen. His renewables-only strategy is failing outright and continues to fail, and we continue to see price hikes. It is not stopping under Labor and we do need to get more supply into the system and the supply you can get in quickly to the system is more gas. I've been saying this for many, many years. If you want to keep electricity prices down, get more gas into the system. Natural gas is the way to get a quick reduction in prices. But this is not something this Labor Government has ever succeeded with. They imposed price caps that haven't worked. They’ve completely failed, and we continue to see price hikes.

 

JOURNALIST:

Angus, what do you think the economic repercussions will be in Australia and on Australia's cost of living because of the escalation in the Middle East?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, that remains to be seen. But I mean, what we do know is that freight costs go up when there's challenges in the Middle East, and we may well see oil prices going up as well. So I mean there's inflationary pressures that continue. We saw, we've just talked about the inflationary pressures from electricity prices, but we may well see those more broadly but we continue to see a situation where inflation isn't [inaudible] we've got a way to go.

 

ENDS.