E&OE TRANSCRIPT
SUBJECTS: Federal Election, Cyclone Alfred, US-Australian Relations, Defence Spending.
KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Kate, the Prime Minister was on the program earlier. He said his focus is on lives, not votes, when I asked him about whether he could call the election or start it during a natural disaster. Should he just clear it up and say look, we’re going to deal with this and then we’ll turn our attention to the election in good time.
KATE THWAITES, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY, AGEING AND WOMEN: As you said Kieran, the Prime Minister was, I think, very clear that the focus right now for him, but for all of us right around the country.. you know, Zoe and I are both here in Victoria but I certainly know people I’m talking to here are thinking about those in South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales, and that is certainly the focus of the government - the Prime Minister, the Emergency Management Minister Jenny McAllister, all of our local MPs in that area working closely together with state and local government - to help prepare those communities for what is going to be a very, very serious event. I do want to commend all those people for that work. My thoughts are absolutely with those communities. It must be a very scary time at the moment and I encourage people to keep listening to all the warnings and all the advice that is being put in place.
HOST: Zoe yes, as Kate said, it was that message from the Prime Minister about focusing on lives, not votes, at the moment. It’s that clear enough in the face of what is going to be...it looks like, according to all forecasts a terrible storm over the coming days.
ZOE MCKENZIE, MEMBER FOR FLINDERS: Exactly our thoughts are all with the people of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales. I’ve been seeing my friends Andrew Wallace, Terry Young, Ted O’Brien and Angie Bell; they’re all focused on basically sandbagging right now. No one is campaigning up there. They are battening down the hatches. We lost in Victoria 130,000 residents to Queensland in the post-COVID period, so we’ve all got a friend up there that’s somewhere watching this bear down on the eastern coast of Queensland. Fingers crossed and thoughts with all the emergency workers there at the moment.
HOST: In terms of the election, Zoe McKenzie, it does look like it’s going to have an impact on the timing from what I can see. And we’ve got those live pictures of the Gold Coast as Alfred starts to show its teeth already, and not due to make landfall across the coast until tomorrow afternoon Zoe. Again, it goes to that issue about the Prime Minister not being able to do it this weekend potentially, and then we’re looking at a Budget and probably early May for the election.
MCKENZIE: Well, it’s interesting Kieran I did ring up this morning to make an accommodation booking for budget week and was told that I was the only one. So who knows, it’s all reading tea leaves, but frankly lets park all those thoughts for now. Our focus needs to be on south-east Queensland and making sure everybody is safe and I think that’s what our leaders are doing at the council level, the state level and the federal level and I commend that.
HOST: Indeed, that’s well said. Kate, and as we’ve been reporting throughout the day as well the government - the federal and state government - is working together and across party lines as you would hope so at a time like this.
THWAITES: Absolutely, I mean I think again this is a time where Australians do come together. We do support those who are on the front lines, our emergency services. I’ve seen like others have, those pictures of the sandbags going out. Local residents doing the work helping their neighbours. That is what Australian communities do at times like this and absolutely it’s not a time for us to worry about party political points. It’s a time for us to make sure, as we are at all levels, that we’re supporting communities and ready as much as we can be for what’s going to be a very serious event.
HOST: Zoe, I want to turn our attention to another serious development this week in relation to Ukraine. Removal of military support first of all, saying that the U.S. is going to end military support, now intelligence support. We are very strongly, both major parties, supporting Ukraine in terms of their fight against Russia. What’s your read on how we should navigate this as a democracy on the other side of the world.
MCKENZIE: Look, I think we have to remember that we are strong allies not just with the U.S. but equally with Europe. Overnight President Macron of France delivered a really important address, talking about Europe’s responsibilities in terms of then provision of aid and their defence strategic assistance to Ukraine and we will see what unfolds in coming days. The Defence Chiefs of Europe are getting together next week to work out how they can provide greater assistance. What this is though, is a wakeup call to all of us to make sure we are doing our share of the lift in terms of our strategic capability. One of the things we’ve had said in this country is that we need to reach 2.4% of GDP spent on defence. In fact, the U.S. would like it to be 3%, and at the moment we are sitting around 2% and that target is a long way away. We might get to 2.3% by 2033. That’s just too far away. This governments record on defence spending has been woeful. It’s all going in the wrong direction and again it will fall to a Dutton government to make this country strong again in terms of its defence capability. So Australia has got its part to do, particularly focused on the Indo-Pacific, but I’m mindful that Europe is stepping up and we’ll see where the U.S. lands in time. There’s obviously been an [inaudible] in recent days between President Zelensky and the U.S. administration so we will see where that lands.
HOST: Kate Thwaites, there is.. as if we need another thing to hang over the campaign at the moment or when it starts.. but the presence of Donald Trump is being felt not just here but right around the world, and we have to try and navigate that in terms of Ukraine. The Prime Minister is still keeping open the option of sending troops there in terms of a peacekeeping capacity. Were you surprised by that?
THWAITES: No, I wasn’t surprised. Australia has stood and we continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine. It is in Australia’s interest and it has been for a long time for us to support a rules based international order where boundaries of countries are respected, and certainly that’s not what’s happened in Ukraine and we do need to work with partners, as Zoe was saying, right across the world to make sure that we are playing our part as part of an international community. And I think when it comes to looking at how we do that, how we do build those alliances right across the world, that’s something that our government has certainly been focused on, and building our defence capability as well. Certainly, when we came to office defence was in a mess and we have been growing spending on defence. We have committed an extra $50 billion because we recognise the circumstances are such that we need it. We haven’t yet, from the Liberals, had them match that commitment. We don’t know what their plans are when it comes to defence spending and I think that is scary when you think about the international environment at the moment, that Peter Dutton and the Liberals can’t tell us what their plans are for defence and we know they have an $350 billion overall cut on the table. Is that going to come from defence spending?
HOST: Unfortunately, Zoe, we’re almost out of time. You can have a quick response if you like, we’ve got about thirty seconds left.
MCKENZIE: We’re already up to $80 billion and counting cuts in defence by this government. We’ve been quite clear about our commitment to the fighter jet program in particular that will boost Australia’s capability, and we always know that the Coalition will spend more on defence that the Labor party.
THWAITES: That wasn’t a no to cuts.
ENDS