Doorstop interview, Parliament House, Canberra

SUBJECTS: Peter Dutton's $3 billion fighter jets pledge; Australia's support for Ukraine; Chinese warships off the WA coastline.

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY: Peter Dutton's defence thought bubble is exactly that. It's lasted 24 hours and is already unravelling. When he made that announcement in a 200 word media statement, he dramatically got the figures wrong. He argued that, again, 28 more Joint Strike Fighters would cost $3 billion. And that's already been demonstrated to be completely ridiculous. The last acquisition of Joint Strike Fighters, 32 in this case by Romania late last year, cost $11.5 billion, not $3 billion. As Peter Dutton says, all he needs.

So, my message to people is if you can't get simple facts right on Defence, you can't be trusted with Defence of the nation. Said it will cost $3 billion, it's going to cost $11.5 billion at least without including the cost of the hangars, the weapons, the air crew, the ground crew, the squadrons being standed up. So, Peter Dutton has demonstrated that yet again he goes for a media release on defence rather than doing the hard poles in yards to make this country safe. Whereas the Albanese Government is investing an extra $50 billion in Defence, including equipping the army, navy and air force with the long range strike they need to deter potential adversaries.

JOURNALIST: The press release section sent an initial $3 billion. An initial amount, not the full amount, and this was the first claims wouldn't arrive for up to five years away. That suggests so that they've factored in that beyond the four decimates, haven't they? This would cost more than $3 billion.

MINISTER CONROY: Well, if you're saying $3 billion, that's what you're arguing for. You can have weasel words about initial, but the fact is when you put in the order, you get the full price. And as Romania has found, it's $11.5 billion without the hangars and infrastructure, without the weapons, without the air crew and the ground staff you need.

So, again, this is them being light on details. We saw this with their own government when they added $42 billion worth of spending commitments to the Defence Budget without increasing the Defence Budget by a single dollar or cutting other programmes. They can use weasel words but they said $3 billion and it's north of $11.5 billion.

JOURNALIST: Ukraine's going to need a lot more kit in months ahead in its self defence, especially if the Americans do pull up. How many Bushmasters have we given and how many do we propose to give them in the coming months?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, we've gifted over 100 Bushmasters to Ukraine and as the Prime Minister said this morning, we stand with the Ukrainian people in their brave struggle against Vladimir Putin's illegal and unprovoked invasion of their country. But we are privileged to be the biggest non NATO contributor of military aid, $1.3 billion at the moment, and I was able to announce the gifting of our Abrams tank fleet to Ukraine when I was at the NATO Defence Ministers meeting late last year. We'll keep talking to the Ukrainian government and their representatives about what they need, but I'm not going to foreshadow future announcements at this stage.

JOURNALIST: Would we put troops or peacekeepers on the ground?

MINISTER CONROY: Again, we're not envisaging that sort of commitment, but we stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and we are proud to be the biggest dominant non NATO contributor.

JOURNALIST: If the Americans did pull out, what complications would there be in terms of combat systems, intelligence and the like?

MINISTER CONROY: Oh, look, I'm not going to get into hypotheticals about what other governments are doing. We can only control what the Australian government's doing, Andrew. And we're providing assistance right now. I visited SYPAQ, which makes drones, and we're providing those to Ukraine right now as one example of the mobilisation of the Australian Defence Industry. So, let's just see where it all goes. But the important thing is that the Australian government stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine right now, and that will continue to be the case.

JOURNALIST: The Opposition leader-

JOURNALIST: There was a question last week that I think suggested that we were a bit behind schedule with sending Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Is there any challenge in getting those tanks over there?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, there's a number of technology restrictions around the deployment of Abrams tanks and we're working through that with our partner countries, but they will be deployed in Ukraine. And last time I met with the Ukrainian Defence Minister, he was incredibly grateful for the assistance the people of Australia are providing.

JOURNALIST: Just back on the joint strike fighters. The Coalition seems to be leaning quite heavily into trying to make this a national security khaki election campaign, whatever you want to call it. Does that worry you?

MINISTER CONROY: Not at all. Because their credibility, their track record is appalling. It is appalling. As I said, they mismanaged the Defence Budget when they were last in power. $42 billion worth of funding announcements made without a single dollar of extra funding made six Defence Ministers in nine years. Goldfish lasted longer than Coalition Defence Ministers. We inherited the oldest navy since World War II and we've been busy fixing that. As I said, we'll have four warships when they would have had one. We brought forward long range strike. We're establishing two missile factories with the first one delivering missiles this year. So, if they want to have an election on Defence, I will match our track record against theirs any day. Peter Dutton can't even get a simple announcement about Joint Strike Fighters, right? How can you trust him on the defence of the nation?

JOURNALIST: Minister, the Opposition Leader has said that if he was Prime Minister, he would actively lobby the US President to change his position on Ukraine. What's your message to the US government and to President Trump about his position on Ukraine?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, again, as is long standing practice, responsible governments don't disclose publicly what they say privately. We respect confidences. But again, I refer you to the statements by Prime Minister Albanese and the Foreign Minister about us supporting Ukraine to end the war on their terms.

JOURNALIST:[indistinct] take time to build. I mean could you, could the Defence budget be increased in the short term and make a material.

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY: Well, we are significantly increasing the defence budget, Andrew. As I said, $50 billion over the next decade, including $5.7 billion already over the next four years. We brought forward missiles, we brought forward landing craft, we brought forward general-purpose frigates, we brought forward infantry fighting vehicles. We've moved from a navy, whose longest range weapon was 120 kilometres to one, right now who can hit targets 2,500 kilometres away. That is all under an Albanese government that is investing in Defence and reforming Defence to improve its speed to capability. The current state of policy of the opposition is a $50 billion cut to the defence budget. That is what the Shadow Treasurer has said many times and that is a question for them. What projects would they cut? Where would they weaken our defences to deliver this $50 billion cut they've committed to?

JOURNALIST: What's gone wrong with the Pacific engagement visa? Why is the take up so low?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, the Pacific Engagement visa is one of the many ways we're trying to restore the damage done to our relationship in the Pacific that occurred under the Coalition government. Let's not forget Peter Dutton's open mic incident where he joked about climate change, or the fact that Morrison and Peter Dutton allowed China to sign a security pact with the Solomon Islands. We've been intent on restoring our relationship with the Pacific. We signed the Falepili Treaty with Tuvalu, the Nauru-Australia Treaty. The PNG NRL deal is all about bringing the countries closer together and we've got a range of policies that are doing that. The Pacific Engagement Visa is one of those policies where we introduced it this year. We're always looking at ways to improve it, but it is right now enormously popular in the Pacific. 56,000 applications and we're learning from the first year of running it and it will improve.

SPEAKER: Last question, guys.

JOURNALIST: Are there any discussions, can I ask two, just one on—

SPEAKER: Very quickly. 

JOURNALIST: First of all, are there any discussions with regards to the future of the Port of Darwin with the NT government or without it? And secondly, what can you tell us about the three warships that steaming ever closer to Perth? Have you worked out whether there's a submarine that's shadowing them and how close have we got to surveilling them?

JOURNALIST: Can I add to your question?

JOURNALIST: Yeah, of course you can.

JOURNALIST: Have the Americans also sent a submarine watching plane [indistinct]?

MINISTER CONROY: So, there's three things that some take as.

JOURNALIST: Port of Darwin.

MINISTER CONROY: Yes. I don't comment on discussions about sensitive infrastructure, that's not to say that there is discussions, but as a matter of course, I don't comment on discussions around sensitive infrastructure. The United States have a Virginia class submarine and associated assets in WA for a training exercise. It is unrelated to anything else that is going on at this time. On your second question, Andrew. This Chinese group of ships is sailing through international waters. It is being subject to the most extensive surveillance a cruise of this type has ever been subjected to. Right now, there are two Australian frigates shadowing those vessels. We've had regular P-8 maritime aircraft surveilling them. This is an unprecedented level of surveillance, especially when you compare it to what occurred under the last government, where you had Chinese warships sail into Sydney Harbour. We had a Chinese spy ship off the coast of Western Australia in 2022 that wasn't subject to anywhere like this sort of surveillance. We've undertaken that surveillance as you'd expect a responsible government to do. 

JOURNALIST: What about the sub? Do they have the sub with them?

MINISTER CONROY: Again, I'd refer you to the statements from the Chief of Defence Force in recent Defence estimates. Thank you very much, everyone.

ENDS