Television Interview, Weekend Today

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

CLINT STANAWAY, HOST: Concern is now mounting this morning over the Chinese warships off Australia's east coast now accused of conducting a live fire exercise.

ALISON PIOTROWSKI, HOST: Commercial pilots are being warned of the potential dangers, told to avoid the airspace between Australia and New Zealand altogether. And for more, we are joined by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles from Geelong. Minister, good morning. Thank you for joining us. This is obviously deeply concerning. What is the latest you can tell us?

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we had yesterday was the notification of a live firing event, it's not clear whether that actually occurred in terms of the live firing itself, but the notification was very short, which meant that there were planes in the air which needed to divert around the airspace. It was for a period of time which has now elapsed, that's what the notification was. We're obviously working with Air Services Australia to make sure that the proper information is being given to airlines that are doing the trans-Tasman route. And they're able to plan to move around this, so there's not going to be any disruption to flights between Australia and New Zealand today. But it was a very disconcerting set of circumstances yesterday and obviously we've raised that with the Chinese government in Canberra, in Beijing, and as you're reporting our Foreign Minister raised this with her counterpart Minister Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister of China.

STANAWAY: And what's the reaction been, Deputy Prime Minister? I mean, how hard do you go with your language right now? Because this is worrying.

MARLES: Well look, I don't think we have a satisfactory answer from China as to the question of the notice. I think it is important to just understand for a moment that this is all happening in international waters. This is what navies do. We would have preferred that there was much more notice provided so that we didn't have the disconcerting set of circumstances yesterday. And of course more broadly in terms of this Task Group and where it is right now, we've been shadowing it since it came near Australia into our northern waters a week or two ago. And what I've made sure is that we've got an unprecedented level of assets on the case shadowing the Task Group to know exactly what it is doing. And we'll keep doing that through until whenever this Task Group completes its mission and we'll have a complete assessment as to exactly what they were trying to achieve with this mission. But they are in international waters. They're entitled to be there. But obviously we're entitled to be prudent and we are being that and we're entitled to make sure that we are shadowing them, surveilling them to understand everything that they're doing.

PIOTROWSKI: Look, they're entitled to be in international waters, but they are in international waters off the Australian coastline. They're not in international waters, you know, off the Russian coastline, off the American coastline. It does feel like China is flexing its muscles. So, what is our stance? I just worry Deputy PM that we're being too polite and not aggressive enough, when we know that China tends to respond to people that stand up to them.

MARLES: Well, I think it's important that we stay calm here and really our touchstone needs to be international law and the rules-based order, because in fact we see that being placed under pressure in the Indo-Pacific, in waters which are very relevant to us, but which are closer to China. And to that end, you know, we have a lot of Australian assets that are in the South China Sea frequently. A large part of our naval activity is in fact there, so that's where our frigates, our warships go. And we do that unashamedly because it's a body of water where most of Australia's trade traverses and we do everything we can to assert the global rules‑based order there. So, the very–

STANAWAY: Sorry Deputy PM, you did mention, or you said it was unsatisfactory, what you'd received from the Chinese government so far. What is a satisfactory outcome here?

MARLES: Well, perhaps to give you a sense of what we do, and it is again important for people to understand that on the high seas, navies engage in live fire exercises, the Royal Australian Navy will engage in live fire exercises on the high seas. When we do an activity of this kind, we would typically give 12 to 24 hours notice. The point being that that then allows any plane which is coming near where we are the opportunity to plan a route around the exercise that we're doing. And you don't have the kind of midair disruption that we saw yesterday, and you don't have those disconcerting circumstances. So, you know, a satisfactory answer is why that couldn't have been done. I hasten to say, though, China has, in all the advice that's been provided to me, complied with international obligations here. And again, I come back to that. Our touchstone needs to be international law, because we take the advantage of international law, as we should, in waters which are much closer to China, and we do engage a lot of our naval activity there. Now, this is an unusual mission that we are seeing with this Task Group. So what we have done is put in place an unprecedented level of surveillance in respect of it. They are not breaching international law, but nor are we in terms of the surveillance that we're putting in place. And I authorised that more than a week ago to make sure that we know exactly what they are doing. It's not the first time we've seen task groups around Australia from China, but this time we are actually taking a much more serious step in terms of both naval and air force assets and indeed working with our partners in the region, particularly New Zealand. It is right now a New Zealand frigate, Te Kaha, which is most close to the Task Group. And depending on where the Task Group goes from here, we've got Australia frigates on standby to pick up the tail, and that's what we will do, and that's the appropriate response in relation to this. But international law has to be our touchstone, and at this point, they're not in breach of it.

PIOTROWSKI: Ok, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, thank you for your time.

ENDS