Interview with Neil Breen, Radio 4BC, Brisbane

Subjects: National Day of Commemoration for Australia’s troop involvement in the Middle East; withdrawal of Australian troops from Afghanistan; Kevin Rudd.

NEIL BREEN:  

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has kindly joined me this morning, giving us some of his time. Thanks very much Minister.

PETER DUTTON: 

Pleasure Neil. How are you? 

NEIL BREEN: 

I’m very well thanks. Twenty years, 41 deaths, suicides. What’s the legacy of the Afghanistan War do you think? 

PETER DUTTON: 

The legacy and what the troops should be most proud of, and what we should be most grateful for, is that we haven’t had a mass casualty suicide attack here – so as we saw in 9/11, thousands of people died and we’ve seen those sorts of terrorist attacks around the world – I honestly believe that because of the efforts of those in Iraq, in Afghanistan over a long period of time, we haven’t had that scale of a terrorist attack here in our country – somebody walking into a movie theatre with a vest on, somebody going into a food court, into a school. We live with all of those threats every day. 

We have been made a safer country and a more secure country because of their service and they have paid an enormous price, as you point out, but for us here domestically that’s the most important outcome of that campaign. Also they’ve been to be able help countless young women be educated and lead a life that they couldn’t otherwise have imagined. But there has been a huge concentration now, and there will be, on us recognising their service and that’s what the National Day of Commemoration is going to be about.

NEIL BREEN: 

All of our thoughts, of course, are with all the Australian soldiers who lost their lives and people who have struggled since coming back from war, but the funny thing about war and the legacy of war is, in hindsight everything’s easy, and I think many Australians find it easy to forget, if you like, how we all felt in 2001. On September 12, 2001, we thought Armageddon was upon us and every day we woke up we wondered whether a plane was going to go into the Sydney Opera House or something a rather. That’s how Aussies felt. Now we look back and we go, “The toll’s been too heavy on this war and we’ve achieved nothing.” Is that how you feel about it? 

PETER DUTTON: 

Neil, there’s a couple of reactions. I mean people either say, “Well, you know the Taliban is going to get back in control, what was it all worth?” So that’s an argument for staying on for another 20 years. The other argument that you hear from people is, “Well, you know we paid an enormous price and why were we there?” So sometimes it’s very hard to please everyone, but I think those diggers need to hear a very clear message from us that we do believe it was a campaign that was worthwhile. 

It’s very clear that Al-Qaeda continue to plan attacks and their aim was to extend Islamic law and the caliphate; we know all of that. As you point out though, I mean life is busy and it moves on very quickly. People forget about that it is coming up to over 20 years ago. So I think the reality for us is that we need to remind people, and ASIO and the Australian Federal Police work every day to try and keep us safe from a terrorist attack because the threat hasn’t gone away, and we need to keep reminding people that the sacrifice that these diggers made was as important as any campaign we’ve been involved in. It’s also about protecting our equities in our lives, in our partnership, our relationship with the Five Eyes partners, including the United States, and the power and the might of the United States in our region is more important than ever.

NEIL BREEN: 

There’s talk in The Australian newspaper today that there’s plans in place to honour those who served Iraq and Afghanistan with a national day and that the Governor-General David Hurley has gone to Prime Minister Scott Morrison himself. Are those plans afoot? 

PETER DUTTON: 

They certainly are. We haven’t decided on a date yet, but we have made an announcement, a commitment, that we will have a day of commemoration – same as we do for Anzac Day or Remembrance Day or Vietnam’s Veterans Day. It’s important that we have a particular dedicated day to honour those troops, those diggers, and there’s a couple of suggestions around. One is that the day we started the campaign. Another could be September 11, the day of the attack in the United States had kicked off much of this effort – and I think that also reminds people that the campaign was about suppressing, defeating terrorism – so I think there’s an argument there. Or it could be the day of our first casualty. 

There are a number of options that are available to us and we’ll have that debate over the next few weeks and then make an announcement about what that actual date will be. It will be a day of national significance on the military calendar and it will be a day to honour the service of all those who fought in the Middle Eastern campaigns.

NEIL BREEN: 

It wouldn’t be able to be a public holiday, though, would it? 

PETER DUTTON: 

I do not think it would be a public holiday, but it will be a day where RSLs and the public and other groups that support veterans can commemorate and recognise their service and I think that is important for the healing for a lot of those who served and also their family members, that they hear that recognition and they understand the public supports them.

NEIL BREEN: 

There’s a separate story doing the rounds this morning, it involves Kevin Rudd, if you don’t mind if I ask you about it. The ABC’s reported this morning that Kevin Rudd himself made contacts with executives from Pfizer and the top Australian businessmen in the US got him involved because Prime Minister Scott Morrison disrespected Pfizer by not talking to them directly and only sending junior bureaucrats in, and now there’s been a letter leaked – I wonder by who – which points that Kevin Rudd is the hero of Pfizer being bought in great batches for Australia. 

PETER DUTTON: 

Well I suspect it wouldn’t take our greatest detective within the Queensland Police Service to identify who leaked that self-serving letter and I mean Kevin claims credit for many things. He used to drive his Labor colleagues crazy. I wouldn’t pay much attention. I think he’s bored to death in retirement and sometimes he weighs into public debates and I suspect his family more than any are waiting for the borders to reopen so he can travel overseas again so they can get their sanity back.

NEIL BREEN: 

Well, I had to read the story twice. I struggle to understand it. Anyway, it seems a little bit roundabout, but anyway I wanted people to be aware of the fact that Kevin Rudd’s got himself back into the news today. Peter Dutton, Defence Minister, thanks so much for joining us this morning. 

PETER DUTTON: 

Thanks mate, pleasure. Thank you.

[ends]