Doorstop Interview, Cairns

SUBJECTS: Australia’s Northern Bases; Defence Industry in Cairns; AUKUS; Cairns Common User Facility; Australia-Canada Relationship; JORN; Federal Budget.

MATT SMITH, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR LEICHHARDT: Good afternoon, my name is Matt Smith, I am the ALP’s candidate for the federal seat of Leichhardt. I'm here with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Senator Nita Green. We're here at J3Seven, which is an innovative and maintenance company that works with the Australian Defence Force and emergency services. This is a really fantastic demonstration of what's possible in far north. This company began 13 years ago out of a garage in Palm Cove and look at it today – working with the US, Canada, allies from all over the world, delivering safe options for our soldiers on the front line. I commend J3Seven for what they've achieved up here, and it's fantastic to see veterans looking after veterans in our local community. I'll hand over now to Senator Green.

NITA GREEN, SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND: Thanks very much, Senator Green, I’m a Labor Senator for Queensland, I live right here in Cairns, and I'm really pleased to be here with Matt and Richard today. And I want to thank Richard for coming back to Far North Queensland. We know how important the north is to the strategic importance of Australia's Defence Force and to the broader region in the Pacific. And so we've got a lot to talk to Richard about while he's here and we're going to have an opportunity to do that with Advance Cairns a little bit later, Richard is Speaking at a forum, it's an opportunity to answer questions and listen and engage with the business community here about what the future of Far North Queensland looks like and how we can develop more defence industry. As Matt said, it's really great to be here at a local business that's doing just that. Under our government, we've seen a growth in the defence industry businesses and in Queensland that's been an 11% growth since we came to government. So we've really focused on making sure that while we're investing in defence, we're also growing local businesses and creating local jobs, and it's good to see that happening first hand here in Far North Queensland. I'm going to hand over now to the Deputy Prime Minister and welcome him to Far North Queensland for what is going to be an excellent trip with lots in the program, but a really good opportunity for us to talk about how important this region is to the defence of Australia.

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's fantastic to be here in Cairns with Senator Nita Green and Matt Smith, our fantastic Labor Candidate for Leichhardt. And as Nita said, one of the great things about Cairns is the strategic significance of this part of the world to our nation's security, and that manifests in a lot of the ways. I mean, you see it with HMAS Cairns and the significance of HMAS Cairns, but you're also seeing it with burgeoning defence industry growing up here in Cairns and J3Seven is a really wonderful example of that. And I really want to thank Gareth Molnar for having us here today at J3Seven. This is a very cool company in terms of what it does. It demonstrates that you can run defence industry from Cairns and J3Seven is a national company. It's not huge, about 22 employees, and they're spread around the country, but headquartered here, and a lot of the research and development of the ideas which are at the heart of J3Seven’s business happens right here in Cairns. This is a business which brings to bear the smarts that have been generated over service in the Australian Defence Force, in our special forces, to help develop innovative products which protect our soldiers, our sailors, our aviators. And it's really wonderful to see a company like J3Seven and the work that it does. But J3Seven also tells another really important story that we want to highlight today, and that relates to AUKUS. At the heart of AUKUS is building a seamless defence industrial base across our three nations; Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Legislation which went through the United States Congress at the end of 2023, complementary legislation which went through our Parliament the beginning of 2024, and subordinate legislation which went through, regulations which went through the UK in 2024 have created a license free environment across our three nations which enable defence industry to work seamlessly across the three countries. We now have more than 200 companies in Australia which have taken up the opportunity of this and Gareth tells me that as he was filling out the forms in relation to this, J3Seven in Australia is number seven – that's fitting, given its name – that it was the seventh company in Australia to be registered to operate in this license free way. And already, what we've seen across those more than 200 companies is $25 million worth of exports being generated from Australian companies into the United States and the United Kingdom. And certainly there's a lot of hope for what J3Seven can do in terms of its work across those three countries, or across the UK and the US. It really demonstrates the power of AUKUS. AUKUS really is about trying to build across our three nations something that is bigger than the sum of its parts, an industrial base which enables us to develop our technology in Australia, in the United Kingdom and the United States, taking the benefit of the joint defence industrial base across our three countries. And it's fantastic to see a smaller company like J3Seven doing the really innovative work that it's doing in a place like Cairns, taking advantage of that.  Happy to take questions. 

JOURNALIST: How is your government supporting organisations like J3Seven? And do you think Cairns is suited for greater defence industries?

MARLES: Well, I think Cairns is really suited to defence industry. I mean, J3Seven is an example of literally, how you can almost do anything, and base it here in Cairns. But we've seen for a long time, really significant industry built up around the Port of Cairns in the maritime space, obviously in and around HMAS Cairns, and we've seen the maintenance of not only civil maritime vessels, but also Navy vessels and other military vessels happening here in Cairns. So there is a really good opportunity for defence industry to be a significant part of the economy of Cairns. It already is, but there's a really significant opportunity for that to grow. 

JOURNALIST: On the Port and the role that the Common User Facility could play towards defence industry, will there be further funding from that from your government?

MARLES: Well, we've been working through, obviously, with the Queensland Government. I know Catherine King is very much across this as our Infrastructure Minister around the development of the Common User Facility. There's clearly a discussion that needs to continue with the Queensland Government in relation to that. But the Common User Facility is, I mean, it's important for the broader economy of Cairns, it does have a role in relation to defence as well. As I said, we've seen defence industry in the maritime space grow up around HMAS Cairns, and the Common User Facility has been an important asset in relation to that. So we will continue to work with the Queensland Government in relation to the future development of the Common User Facility. 

JOURNALIST: Just some questions on the JORN technology. Are you still hopeful the United States will also purchase JORN technology from Australia under President Trump? 

MARLES: Yes, and we're talking with the United States, as we have been for some time in relation to the Over the Horizon Radar technology, JORN, that has been developed in Australia. It really is exquisite technology. But we are very excited about the prospect of working with Canada, as has been announced by Prime Minister Carney and has been discussed between Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Albanese. There's a lot of water to go on the bridge here, but in collaborating with Canada in relation to this technology and working closely with them, what is in prospect here is the single biggest defence industry export from Australia in our history. So this is a really, really big opportunity for the nation. We'll continue to work with Canada in relation to that, and that they are taking the opportunity of collaborating with us and partnering with us in respect of this technology makes sense. This is some of the best technology in the world in terms of what it can do, and it greatly will contribute to the radar technology that exists in North America.

JOURNALIST: Will the Canadians be facing JORN for threats to the north, or to the US in the South?

MARLES: As Prime Minister Carney has said, the Over the Horizon Radar technology they are looking at specifically in terms of its application in the Arctic, and that makes sense to us as well. And they are building, with all that they do in relation to NORAD, so that there is a combined capability across North America. But the specific use for JORN that the Canadians are talking about is in respect of them. 

JOURNALIST: How much could selling this technology across North America and possibly the UK, be worth? 

MARLES: Look, I'm not going to go into the amounts, the dollar amounts, other than to say what I just have said, that what's in prospect here would be the biggest defence export that Australia has ever engaged in. So this is a really significant development in the defence industry history of our country, and it relates to one of the most significant technologies that's really ever been developed in Australia. It is an exquisite technology in terms of what it enables. We have used it for a very long period of time. It's a great advantage as we look more and this will be a really, really important addition to Canada's own defences, but to the broader defences of North America. 

JOURNALIST: Can you please detail what makes this technology so special or different?

MARLES: I can, but I won't in terms of doing so publicly. What it enables in terms of the extent to which you can detect things, the distance that you can detect things with the assets that are used is really quite unique and is really important in the context of how contests, future human contest is imagined going forward. It is why it has always been a really important capability for Australia. But as we imagine contest and warfare in the future, in fact, the relevance of JORN has only grown as we see it, and obviously that is being echoed in terms of the decision that's been taken by Canada.

JOURNALIST: How long has this contract been in the works?

MARLES: Well, we are working with Canada right now, and so what we are doing is developing this. There is still water to go under the bridge here. So that's why I'm using the language that what is in prospect here is the biggest export. That hasn't occurred yet, but it's a very big statement that's been made by the Prime Minister of Canada overnight, that they are deciding to collaborate with Australia in relation to this, to partner with us in respect of this technology. So we're very excited about the prospect of that, but we have been talking with the Canadians as we've been talking with the Americans about the potential use of the Over the Horizon Radar technology for the protection of North America. 

JOURNALIST: What can Far North Queensland expect in terms of Budget next week from a defence perspective?

MARLES: Look, again, I'm not going to go into the specifics of the Budget next week. I suspect if I start doing that, the Treasurer would not be particularly happy with me stealing his thunder. But I think– I let me just say this, through the Defence Strategic Review and what we have then done with the recasting of the Integrated Investment Program, that's the 10‑year defence spend, we are seeing in the next few years a $3.8 billion spend across northern bases in Australia, and that includes HMAS Cairns. We're seeing a significant upgrade of HMAS Cairns in terms of allowing it to be a maintenance hub for the region and a logistics hub for the region, and that is a really significant contribution, financial contribution, to the development of HMAS Cairns. But what it says is how strategically significant HMAS Cairns is to Australia's national security, and in a broader sense, where we started, how significant Cairns is. This is really the part of Australia where we look to our north east, where we have our Pacific neighbours very close. And we work very closely with our Pacific neighbours, our relationships with them, with countries like Papua New Guinea are profoundly important in terms of our national security. If you think about that one bilateral relationship between Australia and PNG, I mean, Cairns is utterly central to that – logistically, physically central to it, but HMAS Cairns is really central to it as well. And so what you have seen is a really significant uptick in our investment across the northern bases and specifically HMAS Cairns.

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