E&OE
MARK LEVY:
David Coleman is the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. He joins me on the line this morning. Mr. Coleman, good morning to you.
DAVID COLEMAN:
Good morning, Mark.
MARK LEVY:
Well, David, I don’t know what’s more concerning here, that Russia wants to put long-range missiles on our doorstep or that the Government doesn’t seem too fussed about it.
DAVID COLEMAN:
Both are deeply concerning, Mark. And it is important to note that any attempt by Russia to expand its military footprint in our region is an issue of grave concern. The last thing that Australia wants is Russia in our backyard. So this is a very important matter. Now what we know is that the Government’s behaviour here is shifty, dodgy and evasive. The Prime Minister has been twisting and turning like some sort of contortionist on this issue, and he won’t provide the Opposition with a briefing on what the Government knew and what they did, or perhaps what they didn’t do, Mark. Now, if the Government had a good story to tell, they’d be telling it. But what they’re doing here is hiding from scrutiny. Because there’s obviously something embarrassing here, but the PM will be asked about this every day between now and the election, as he just was 15 minutes ago but he still can’t give a straight answer.
MARK LEVY:
Well, that’s not good enough, David. I’m a hard-working Australian. I want to know about the threats when it comes to our national security. And given what Russia has done to places like Ukraine, given the actions of Vladimir Putin on a whole range of things, I want to know whether or not there is going to be this military aircraft at bases in Indonesia. The Prime Minister of this country needs to come clean.
DAVID COLEMAN:
He absolutely does, Mark. Expansionist ambitions of Russia are very disturbing. We’ve seen what Russia has done in Ukraine. That is a illegal, brutal and immoral conflict. So any notion of Russia wanting to expand in our region is a very, very serious thing. But we had Penny Wong say, Mark, on the 16th of April about this, she said, “hang on, we have not got confirmation of that approach. So I just want to be really clear we have not got confirmation of that approach.” Penny Wong said that on the 16th of April. Murray Watt, the Cabinet Minister, said there is no proposal from Russia to have a base anywhere in Indonesia and he said that the Opposition’s request for a briefing, that we might as well ask for a briefing on the Loch Ness monster. And Richard Marles, the Defence Minister, Mark, he initially said there’d be no problem with providing the Opposition with a briefing. And then he turned around and said no briefing will be provided. So there is something dodgy going on here. And what they’re doing is what they always do, and that is putting their political interests above the best interests of the nation. Because this is a serious matter. Now of course if there are confidential sources and methods in anything that the Government has been aware of, of course the Opposition would respect those confidentialities in any briefing. But the Government can’t just run and hide on this. There’s clearly something that they don’t want the Opposition to know. The way these briefings work, Mark, is that the officials who would give the briefing are duty-bound to be honest and tell the truth. And the Government obviously doesn’t want that to happen. And that says something very bad about Mr Albanese.
MARK LEVY:
Well, given the comments from the three senior Ministers that you’ve touched on, Ms Wong, Mr Watt and Mr Marles, have they lied to the Australian people?
DAVID COLEMAN:
Well, it certainly appears to be the case, Mark, and what they need to do today, each of them, is come out and correct the record. So Penny Wong said there was no confirmation of the approach. Murray Watt said there’s no proposal at all. Richard Marles’ comments were more in relation to the briefing, Mark. So Richard Marles said, no issues with a briefing. And these briefings are standard, they happen all the time. We provided a briefing to the Government, to the Opposition rather, when we were in Government during the election campaign on a national security issue. So they happen all the time. Richard Marles initially said, all fine. And then a week later he said, nup, we’re not doing it.
MARK LEVY:
Well, David, just on this, right, I’m thinking out loud here, let’s look at the track record of recent months under the Government. Chinese live-fire drills, we found out via a Virgin Australia pilot. Spy ship off the south coast of Australia, the Government played it down, the Prime Minister as well. And now this, involving the Russians, I mean, what is going on in Canberra?
DAVID COLEMAN:
Yeah, they are just completely asleep at the wheel, is what’s happening here, Mark, I mean, the fact that a Virgin airlines pilot had to tell the Australian Government that the live-firing exercises were occurring, the fact that the Government effectively had no problem with the circumnavigation of Australia by that same flotilla, and the fact now that we’ve got this very dodgy, very evasive behaviour in relation to this Russian proposal. So, you know, what they do is they look at things and say what is in the Labor Party’s political interests, and then the way they respond is based on that. What they’ve clearly decided on this Russian request is there’s something here that they don’t want us to know and so they’re trying to make sure we don’t find out and they are using all sorts of different tactics. I mean the Prime Minister has been basically ridiculing journalists who have been asking about this. And talking about the fake moon landing and what a big joke it is. But this is not a joke. This is a very serious matter and the PM I think is very badly exposed now on this, and he needs to tell the truth.
MARK LEVY:
It’s our national security, it’s not a joke, it isn’t a laughing matter at all. Before you go, David, latest Newspoll isn’t looking good for the Coalition this weekend, the election. Are you still confident you can win Government?
DAVID COLEMAN:
Oh, we absolutely can win, Mark. And I mean, you think about it, this is the Prime Minister saying give me another three years. Give me a tick of approval and he certainly doesn’t deserve a tick of approval or another three years. I mean, he never takes responsibility for anything, like I don’t know if you saw the debate last night, but basically anything that has gone wrong in the last three years and there’s a lot of things, not his fault. If he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he’d blame the cookies. You know, this is a Prime Minister who promised electricity prices would come down by $275, 97 times. Hasn’t mentioned it once since the election. And that’s just one of so many examples of the incredible failure, and the people who are paying for that are ordinary Australians whose standard of living has declined very substantially.
HON DAVID COLEMAN MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
MEMBER FOR BANKS