E&OE

 

QUESTION: Mr Taylor, what do you want to see out of this meeting?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, it's incredibly important that there be a strong focus on strengthening our relationship, trade relationship, with China. It’s been important to our economy for a long time. It's underpinned the strength of our economy for recent decades, several decades, and I'm sure it can continue to if that relationship is maintained in the appropriate way. So, we strongly support that. On the other hand, it's also important that there be a clear line in the sand on geopolitical and strategic issues. The truth is we are facing the most uncertain strategic times since the Second World War. The Prime Minister himself has acknowledged that, and he needs to be clear about that in his discussions with China. We can have a strong trade relationship with China and at the same time have strategic differences and have a clear line in the sand on these strategic issues. We must work closely with our allies like the United States, like Japan, like India and others to ensure we have peace through deterrence and strength in the Indo-Pacific, in the Taiwan Strait, and they are incredibly important issues to us, to our region and to our part of the world. The Prime Minister has not been putting in the work that is necessary to make sure that U.S. alliance remains where it needs to be. He needs to get a face-to-face meeting with the President of the United States as soon as possible to ensure that the governance around our alliance, around the AUKUS alliance is as it should be, and that there is a joint commitment to peace through deterrence in our part of the world.

 

QUESTION: You mentioned the Taiwan Strait there. The US seems to be perhaps making some moves to say that we should be supporting them if they ever went into bat for Taiwan against China. Do you think that Australia should be making any of those commitments? 

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, as you know, and as the United States knows, you can't codify a response to every possible conflict scenario. That's not a realistic objective. But what you can say is that there is a joint commitment to peace in our region, and that peace will be achieved through deterrence, through strength, and through alliances. Strong alliances underpin sovereignty. They always have through history. The Prime Minister doesn't seem to understand this. He seems to think there's some kind of trade-off between sovereignty and alliances. Well, there's not. Strong alliances underpin the sovereignty of a great nation like ours. If we are to continue to have peace in our region, we need strong alliances with countries, including the United States,

and others and that is absolutely essential to making sure that we have the economic prosperity and the peace we want to continue to see in our region.

 

QUESTION: Is it fair of the US then to ask us to make a position formal and to do away with strategic ambiguity?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: You're working on anonymous leaks so I'm not going to respond to that other than to say

that you can't codify every possible prospect, but what you can do is commit to principles that you jointly hold. We clearly are jointly committed to peace in our region, to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and to making sure we achieve that peace through strength and deterrence. That is absolutely essential to our alliance, and the Prime Minister should articulate that. We've seen Richard Marles go some way towards that, but clearly he gets clipped over the hand every time he does that. But that is very, very important. And as long as we're clear in our relationship with countries like China, I think we can work together, and that's what we should be doing.

 

QUESTION: Is it prudent for Australia to have a Plan B for the Australian Submarine Agency to have some contingency planning in case this doesn't happen?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: We've got a Prime Minister that's not even focused on Plan A. That's the problem.

When is the Prime Minister going to meet with the President of the United States? When is the Prime Minister going to commit to the funding necessary for the AUKUS agreement to be real? When is the Prime Minister going to commit to the funding necessary to support his own Defence Strategic Review? When are we going to see the appropriate level of investment in our northern bases, our northern facilities? When are we going to see the appropriate level of investment in Henderson, in Western Australia. In the missile and counter-missile capability and manufacturing here in Australia? We're not seeing those commitments. And ASPI itself has said we're on our way to a paper defence force. When are we going to see the commitment to the people that the government itself has said we need to see in our defence force that we're well short of? So that's plan A.

This government doesn't even have a plan A that is realistic. Get on with it. I'm sure that with that kind of commitment, the relationship with the United States will strengthen, not weaken, and that's what the government should be doing. 

 

QUESTION: What number do you have in terms of increased defence spending?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: We've been clear all the way. We took to the last election getting to 3% of GDP. That's 50% higher than it sits right now and it means we wouldn't have all the programs underfunded as they currently are now. Now, others, experts in this field, have said time and time again we need to be getting up towards that kind of number. That's how you fund the Government's own Defence Strategic Review. That's how you fund all of those initiatives and many more. The drone and counter-drone technology, which we know is so important in the modern world, again under investment by this Government. So, we need to see a realistic plan that can be delivered by a government that right now is not serious, is not serious about dealing with the most challenging strategic environment we've seen. Last question.

 

QUESTION: Just on the Port of Darwin, is it right for the government to force those Chinese owners to sell it?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, that was the position we took to the last election and it's the right thing to do. At the end of the day, we have to make sure that we're recognising the challenge we're facing around the world where authoritarian regimes are flexing their muscles in ways we haven't seen in the past. We are seeing

a massive military build-up by the Chinese Communist Party. We have seen Iran flexing its muscles. We have seen Russia clearly in Ukraine. North Korea. These regimes are authoritarian. They don't share our values and our commitment to democracy. And it is incredibly important in that environment we spend what is necessary to make sure that we can work with our allies to deter conflict which none of us want to see in our part of the world. Thank you very much.

 

ENDS