Television Interview, Weekend Sunrise

SUBJECT/S:Chinese Naval Vessels off the Coast of Australia.

DAVID WOIWOD, HOST: Well, the Albanese Government is demanding answers from Beijing after a shock live fire exercise by Chinese warships off Australia's east coast. The military manoeuvres which have dramatically ratcheted up tensions between the two nations, also forcing short notice commercial flight diversions in airspace between Australia and New Zealand.

MONIQUE WRIGHT, HOST: For more, we bring in Defence Minister and Deputy PM Richard Marles, live from Geelong. Good to see you, Minister. Thanks for joining us. Ok, so we've had this rather vague DFAT statement. Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with her Chinese counterpart overnight. She raised, quote, unsafe and unprofessional behaviour just off our coast. So, what did China have to say about it? How did they respond?

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Well, I mean, China responds in the way it does. We don't yet have an answer which would be satisfactory to us in the sense of why the notice was so short. But we have made representations, as you say, from our Foreign Minister Penny Wong to Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China. We also made representations both through our Embassy in Beijing yesterday and also to the Chinese Embassy in Canberra. I mean, the issue here was that the live firing that was notified by China, it's not clear yet whether any live firing actually occurred, but they notified a live firing exercise, but with very short notice, which meant that that was very disconcerting for planes that were in the air; Qantas, Virgin, Air New Zealand. They were able to divert and there was never any prospect of people being in danger. But this is obviously a very disconcerting set of circumstances. And whilst it is compliant with international law, the notice was short, at least relative to what we would do in this circumstance. We do live firing on the high seas in terms of the Royal Australian Navy, but we would tend to give 12-24 hours notice so that airlines are able to plan around that, and that's not what happened here.

WOIWOD: Minister, these are undoubtedly provocative actions here and as you say, the response from China has been unsatisfactory. Have you spoken to our other allies in the region, the United States, what's been their response?

MARLES: Well, what we've been– we've obviously been working very closely with New Zealand and again, I think, from the get go, when it was clear that this Task Group was coming towards Australia and there was the prospect of this Task Group being around for some time, we really put in place an unprecedented level of surveillance in respect of the task group. And so we've been working very closely with our friends and allies in the region in terms of being able to monitor this.

WOIWOD: I understand that Minister, but have you spoken to the United States in light of what has now happened?

MARLES: Well, I've not directly spoken to the US about this, but as I say, we've been working very closely with New Zealand and I was in contact with my New Zealand counterpart yesterday and indeed, a New Zealand frigate, Te Kaha, is currently the ship which is shadowing the Task Group and is providing us with the bulk of the information right now in relation to what's happening.

WRIGHT: Yeah, look, even if they had have given more notice, it's been very disconcerting. You know, they've been off the coast for days now and, you know, we repeatedly hear that your Government has stabilised relations with China. But this really isn't behaviour of a state that we've stabilised relations with, is it? You must be concerned?

MARLES: Well, I think we just do need to take a deep breath for a moment. What China is doing is compliant with international law. They're able to do what is happening here. They are on the high seas. At no point have they broken international law. But equally, this is an unusual mission that the Task Group has engaged in, which is why we've taken an unprecedented step in terms of our rights, which is to be shadowing them. And so, both in terms of Navy and Air Force assets, I've instructed that they be put into use to make sure that we have every piece of information possible about exactly what the Task Group is up to, and we will continue to shadow them for as long as they are within the vicinity of Australia and indeed within the vicinity of New Zealand. It's unusual. We have seen Chinese vessels around Australia in the past, but this is an unusual thing that we are watching now, which is why we are meeting that correspondingly with a level of surveillance that we've not done before.

WRIGHT: Yeah. And we're not sure when they're going. Richard Marles, thanks so much for your time, we appreciate it.

WOIWOD: Thanks Minister. 

MARLES: Pleasure.

ENDS