Interview with Peter Stefanovic, First Edition, Sky News

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Let's go live to Brisbane now. Joining us is the Defence Minister Peter Dutton. Minister, good to see you, thanks for your time this morning. First of all, I just want to ask you about the Prime Minister. He's tested positive to Covid overnight. Have you spoken to him, and how's he doing? 

PETER DUTTON:

Good morning Pete. I texted with him last night. I haven't spoken to him this morning, but he had flu-like symptoms pretty light. He's determined I think to work from home. He's got the secure video network set up there. So we'll have the Expenditure Review Committee and the National Security Committee as normal. He's determined to make sure that we can help everybody recover from the floods and to deal with the emergency as it's unfolding across the east coast. So I think he's in pretty good spirits and hopefully back fully recovered pretty soon. 

PETER STEFANOVIC:

You were with him yesterday. Any concerns that you might have picked it up again? 

PETER DUTTON:

No, I had an RAT test this morning and that was all negative. So I'll keep monitoring that over the next couple of days and do that regularly, but I've had three doses, I've had Covid, I'm not sure whether I've had Omicron yet or not, but I feel pretty relaxed, no symptoms. So, no, I'm not sure how many times I can catch it, but I'm feeling pretty secure this morning. 

PETER STEFANOVIC:

You're okay so far. Okay. On to the floods now Minister, and the defence force assets, where are they being deployed? 

PETER DUTTON:

Well Pete, we've had so far about 900 ADF personnel involved in this operation. Clearly the work yesterday that we saw on our television screens, that Sky carried live, were just remarkable scenes, and it showed the best of our Australian Defence Force.

So they've now been involved in the recovery of over 70 people, rescued 70 people with helicopters and many more by boat and across lands etc. That will continue. They'll be down around that Lismore region, they'll be helping today up in Gympie to clean up. So as we're seeing the Brisbane River recede, hopefully in coming days, they'll be involved in the clean-up there as well and they were involved in the rescue within Brisbane as well. 

So it's a significant event, and I just say to people who are watching these scenes unfold, if you're living further south between Ballina and Sydney and even further south than that, this is a cell that is moving through and you don't want to be the next person that's rescued off your rooftop. So take pre-emptive action and listen to the authorities and just err on the side of caution, this is a very significant event. 

PETER STEFANOVIC:

What sort of extra help is available that you can call on? 

PETER DUTTON:

We have really been fairly forward leaning I've got to say in relation to this operation. We had a sense of what was coming, we pre-positioned our people and our assets, we've relocated assets, including the Taipans, the helicopters that you saw in action yesterday.

They will, as I say, move gradually down the east coast as the rain cell moves and that's why they were able to quickly respond yesterday. They came out of Oakey yesterday down to Ballina, and we had some flooding as you know at Amberley, so the RAAF had to relocate some of their fixed wing aircraft out of Amberley. 

But the work coming out of the 7th Brigade, the 5th Brigade out of Holsworthy as well, quite remarkable. We were at Enoggera Barracks, Gallipoli Barracks in Brisbane only a couple of days ago and they had been involved in Covid Assist, they've been involved in the response to aged care facilities, they've been involved in helping evacuate people from aged care facilities in northern New South Wales as well. Pretty remarkable people.

If you see somebody in uniform today, please stop and acknowledge the sacrifice and the service that they're giving because they are well and truly going above and beyond the call of duty and we really do appreciate it. I'm incredibly proud of the work that we saw yesterday. 

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Okay, just over to Ukraine. More details about the sort of hardware that we're going to be sending Ukrainians – Ukraine's forces. With Kyiv all but surrounded, how are you going to get the weapons into those Ukrainian fighters? 

PETER DUTTON:

Well Pete, there's no question it becomes harder and harder as the Russians get more and more frustrated with the resistance that's taking place in the Ukraine, but we'll work with NATO partners, including the US and the UK. There are established supply lines and there are ways in which that operation can be undertaken. The European Union obviously has announced something like 500 million euros of military support, and that obviously has to get through as well. 

But it's more and more worrying as the days go by that Russian soldiers, as we've known through history, are a very brutal force, and the carnage that we're seeing right across the Ukraine at the moment is very confronting and I think it's going to intensify.

I want it to go away, but we need to be realistic about the intent of somebody with Putin's mind set. It's only China, really, now that can stop Putin now from progressing the way that he is and the pressure really should be on President Xi to pick up that phone and instead of offering comfort, offering words of direction to President Putin that he should withdraw from Ukraine as quickly as possible. 

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Last time we spoke you agreed that it was more an inevitability that Putin will eventually get Ukraine. If that does happen, do you believe long term that Ukraine could descend into some kind of civil war because so many people don't want to have, or be under, his control. So do you believe that it could descend into civil war in the same way that places like Iraq or Libya did? 

PETER DUTTON:

Pete, it's clear that there is an enormous amount of nationalistic sentiment, and that's felt not just within the Ukraine, as we're seeing, but from around the world and I think that's, frankly, provided a lot of impetus for the international support and it's also been a rallying call for Ukrainian nationals – whether they're living in or occupying parts of the Ukraine or surrounding countries – they feel a sense of duty and you can understand that because the President is a modern-day hero and he has provided inspiration to his people in a way that President Putin never could. 

The iron fist that Putin rules with, we see it in Russia, we're now seeing it in the Ukraine. There is tragically a sense of inevitability because of the sheer weight of force that Russia is bringing to bear, but there is considerable response on the ground and we're seeing that.

We want to see it continue and hopefully that force is repelled eventually, but at the moment when you see capital cities being encircled, it is very difficult to see a different outcome. Let's just hope that common sense prevails for the Russians and when we're talking about women and children and the body count mounting very, very high each day, then, really, the international pressure should be too much to bear for President Putin. 

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Have you seen any evidence of Australians going off to fight? Is there any evidence of that nature that you've seen? 

PETER DUTTON:

I haven't seen that evidence. We were asked that question yesterday about whether people have been stopped at the border. But as we saw with Syria, generally people will mask their travel movements. They'll book a ticket, you know, to one destination and then book the second leg separately to that and it's impossible, frankly, to know, unless people are frank and declare it at the border what their true intent is with their travel beyond our borders. 

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Okay. That's the Defence Minister Peter Dutton. Busy morning for you I know, so I appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us. 

PETER DUTTON:

Thanks, Pete.

[ends]