E&OE
JOHN STANLEY:
The Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister is David Coleman. He joins me on the line now. David Coleman, good morning.
DAVID COLEMAN:
Good morning John.
JOHN STANLEY:
Based on what you’ve heard there, did Peter Dutton go too far in what he said yesterday?
DAVID COLEMAN:
No, look, Peter Dutton has absolutely pointed out that if this request was made and the Australian Government didn’t know about it, and that’s what appears to be the case, that is a catastrophic failure of diplomacy. We should have known about it. And the Government won’t say whether they knew about it or not, if the request was made. And you’ve had Richard Marles on TV this morning, effectively saying that, he can’t say because it’s all very sensitive, which is a little bit convenient, John, because if they didn’t know, and the request was made, they should have known. Now, we’ve put in a request to the Government for a full briefing on this. We need to know what happened, and the Government needs to come clean on its knowledge or lack of knowledge. It’s very similar to what we saw with the PLA warships, John, when the Government didn’t know what was going on.
JOHN STANLEY:
Just in relation to this, so the way these things work, I guess, is that we have, we have our people there in Jakarta, and the reports this morning say this has been discussed. So obviously Indonesia’s saying, well it’s not going to happen. The request has obviously been made and it’s been discussed within Indonesian military circles. So we should have people, you’re saying, that would know about that and relate it back to us.
DAVID COLEMAN:
Well indeed, I mean Penny Wong spends a lot of time congratulating herself, John, a lot of time on congratulating herself on her diplomatic skills. But if the diplomatic skills are so good, why would we not be aware of this request if it was made?
And why on earth did we not know that PLA warships were about to conduct live-firing exercises off our coast until we were told by a Virgin airlines pilot? The Government had no idea until they were told by a Virgin airlines pilot. And so if the Government is so wonderful at diplomacy as they constantly tell us, why are they in the dark on such fundamental issues? Of course they should have known, if this request was made.
JOHN STANLEY:
So just, the broader question of China. Everything is changing isn’t it? We’re in a quite different world in terms of foreign affairs, with Russia seemingly emboldened to get, well if not in bed with Indonesia, getting closer to Indonesia. You’ve got China trying to flex its muscle in our area and you’ve got the United States plainly a wild card in all of this in terms whether they’re interested in helping us or whether they are more interested in shutting up shop.
DAVID COLEMAN:
Well John, our most important security relationship is with the United States, and that will absolutely continue to be the case. AUKUS is a very good thing for our country. The access to nuclear-propelled submarines is a game-changer and a very positive thing for us.
JOHN STANLEY:
Do you understand when people hear that and they say, we’re not going to get them for how long? I mean, you’ll be out of Parliament, I’m assuming, when they arrive. And so what’s defending us in the meantime? Because we’ve got defence chiefs today saying, we need missiles, we need these lethal drones. Are we going to hear about that before election day in terms of your defence plans?
DAVID COLEMAN:
You’ll certainly be hearing more from the Coalition before election day, John. And it’s a very good point to raise, because the Government says, correctly, that we live in the most challenging strategic circumstances since the Second World War, and their response is to cut $80 billion from defence and basically do nothing about the challenges which we face. So yes, you will hear more from us on defence. We have said we need to increase defence funding, because the more resilient our defence, the more capable we are, the better we are placed in an uncertain world. This Government’s dropped the ball on defence and we’ll be having more to say about that in the coming weeks.
JOHN STANLEY:
In the coming weeks, because it’s not that much longer to go. People start voting next Tuesday that defence plan, are we going to get that what before next Tuesday?
DAVID COLEMAN:
I’m not going to give away any timeline this morning, John, but it’s absolutely, we’ve said we’ll have more to say, we’ll more to stay, and the Government has been just vacant on this issue. Under the previous Labor Government, defence spending reached the lowest levels since the Second World War, as a percentage of GDP. We built that up substantially when we were in Government. It needs to grow further and it needs to be spending which is calibrated to be most effective for our strategic circumstances. We haven’t seen that from the Government and we’re also not seeing from the Government diplomatic insight into what’s going on in our region. I mean, to have a situation where we have live-firing exercises conducted off our coast and the Government needs to basically get a phone call from a Virgin airlines pilot to tell them it’s happening – I mean that would be comical if it wasn’t so serious.
JOHN STANLEY:
Can you discuss here, just as a Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, just one question, because the narrative seems to be that anything to do with Donald Trump is poison for the Coalition. Can you, are you in a situation where you can’t say anything complimentary about the US President because it’s going to be politically poison?
DAVID COLEMAN:
Look John, we’ve obviously been critical of a number of things that Donald Trump said. I mean, his statements on Ukraine, we disagree with very strongly, what he’s doing on tariffs is clearly bad for the economy. And we’ve known that tariffs are bad for more than a century. The US remains an incredibly important partner of Australia, both strategically and economically. We should work very constructively with the US and that’s what a Coalition Government would do. But we will disagree on occasion and we’re not going to shy away from that when that happens.
JOHN STANLEY:
Do you think he’s a good President so far?
DAVID COLEMAN:
Look, I think there are things that I obviously don’t agree with, John, and I’ve outlined some of those. It is not for us to provide a running commentary on the activities of other nations. Where we disagree, we will make that apparent. But the key issue for us is that the US is a key strategic partner, and that will continue to be the case.
JOHN STANLEY:
I’m getting a lot of messages from our listeners who are saying why we heard nothing on defence and why you’re saying it’s still up your sleeve. We’re getting that close to the election. They can’t believe it.
DAVID COLEMAN:
We’ll have more to say very soon, John, and it is a massive issue, because the Government…
JOHN STANLEY:
And that’s what they’re saying, they’re saying well, tell us what you’re doing.
DAVID COLEMAN:
And that will happen soon, John, and it is a huge issue. The Government has done nothing on defence. They’ve cut defence significantly. They’ve acknowledged the reality…
JOHN STANLEY:
They want to know what you are doing. You understand that, don’t you?
DAVID COLEMAN:
Yeah, sure. And as I said, we’ll have more to say on that soon.
JOHN STANLEY:
Thank you very much. Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, David Coleman there.
HON DAVID COLEMAN MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
MEMBER FOR BANKS