Australia to consider leasing or buying existing submarines from the US, UK

peter dutton thanks for your time what's your reaction to the french recalling their ambassadors well andrew great to be with you on the program uh obviously we've made a decision which is in our national interest there's a very changing and significantly changing circumstance taking place in the indo-pacific and we conducted a review because obviously over a couple of years now we've been concerned about the contract and the review very clearly indicated to us that the nuclear powered submarine was the best option to keep australia safe and that's the decision that we've taken i can understand of course that the french are upset at the cancellation of the contract but in the end our job is to act in our national interest and suggestions that the concerns hadn't been flagged by the australian government uh just defy frankly what's on the public record and certainly what was said publicly over a long period of time the government has had those concerns we've expressed them and we want to work very closely with the french and we'll continue to do that uh into the future but obviously we can understand as australia would be uh french is upset france is upset at the cancellation of a significant contract but recalling their ambassadors seems seems a pretty full-on move doesn't it that the accusation from them appears to be and i know you just addressed it that there was some form of duplicity on the part of the prime minister that he met boris johnson and joe biden went and had dinner with emmanuel macron not not telling macron this other plan was being hatched well andrew all i can say is uh that we've been upfront open and honest as as i say that public remarks are there for all to see there are comments to estimates uh the french were so concerned that they sent out an admiral to meet with us a couple of weeks ago the prime minister has been upfront and respect very much the relationship with president macron and similarly with my counterpart florence parley i've had conversations and we've been open about our concerns and we've been open about the fact that we need to act in our national interest and given the changing circumstances in the indo-pacific not just now but over the coming years we had to make a decision that was in our national interest and that's exactly what we've done could they have provided the nuclear technology or that just wasn't possible it wasn't possible because we don't have a nuclear industry in our country and the french model the barracuda model has the need for the reactor to be charged to be refueled every seven to ten years something of that order the technology used by the brits and by the united states means that the reactor remains intact for the life of the assets so for about 35 years it doesn't need to be refueled and therefore we don't need a domestic industry around nuclear and that is a game changer for the labor party and we wanted to make sure that this was a bipartisan effort because this project will span for a long period of time and we wanted to make sure that there was support both from the government and the opposition they wouldn't have supported the purchase of a french barracuda that required the the industry around nuclear to be developed in australia so i think we've got the right balance here and clearly the uk model the us model that we're looking at is the best in class in terms of the nuclear submarine all right well the submarine project it'll be finished sort of by the late 2030s by the look of things will you consider leasing or buying existing submarines from the us and uk in the meantime uh the short answer is yes i mean that there's uh all of that discussion to take place in uh the next 12 to 18 months and already obviously i've met with a number of my my counterparts here from the secretary down in terms of those that are making decisions and we'll have further discussions with the brits as well uh that's as you would expect that the talk that you could just buy a nuclear-powered submarine off the shelf of course you know is is just not accurate or correct and i think most people realize that uh the us has also got a very significant program uh of development underway in their nuclear submarine program as as did the brits and frankly as do the french and others the chinese are pumping out uh submarines and frigates and aircraft carriers etc at a record rate and so the rest of the world now for a period of time has really stepped up their production of those those assets and that unfortunately is the dynamic in which we're operating at the moment it's been made clear to us that it'll be significantly more expensive this submarine project than the 90 billion french project how much are we talking about here could it be 200 billion dollars well let's wait and see i mean we're in the process of negotiations now that we've entered into in terms of price and time etc i want to condense the timeline i want to reduce the cost as best i can but it's not going to be a cheap project but maintaining peace is not something that comes for free what is the importance of some of the other measures that were announced the tomahawk missiles the hypersonic missiles these are missiles which can travel 2 000 kilometers what what are we getting them for and how soon can we get them and what's the cost well there's a lot more to the announcement obviously that the nuclear subs uh announcement was was significant and has taken up uh most of the uh the bandwidth but sitting under that is a very significant enhancement in space and cyber the thought that an industry like the power industry or the internet or banking could be closed down is a very real one and again we need to make sure that we've got the defenses in place but also the offensive capacity as well to be able to strike back so that people have to think twice about attacking us and that requires money again there's also an announcement by the u.s that they will cycle through many more of their assets including subs and uh their uh aircraft uh of all types um we'll spend more time in australia as well and in terms of the uh the guided weapons and the missiles the hypersonic capacity we've announced a billion dollars on the table already and there will be more money required for that program again it provides a deterrence and it also provides uh us with the ability given that we're an island nation we've got uh choke points to the north approaches uh through uh you know that that part of the geography for us that need to be dealt with and so uh there are a range of capabilities that we could use to uh to strike again in extremis but let's hope that it never comes to that but there's no sense in something happening and then me saying to the australian people that we don't have the capability to deal with it we have to to live in the times as they are not as we want them to be and that's that's the approach that we're taking from your time in washington and your uh discussions with secretary austin how concerned how concerned are the americans about a potential invasion of taiwan that china would want to do that well andre i think we only need to look at the words of uh of the chinese in relation to taiwan uh the communist party has been very clear about their intent and obviously there's a significant concern about that intent here in washington but not just here in the united states so as you know there's been a german frigate the brits have sent their assets out to the indo-pacific nato has been concerned they were shouted down by the ccp but but nato has expressed concern about what's happening in the indo-pacific there are many other nations including small ones who frankly are intimidated at the moment the the arming of the so-called coast guard that's operating in the china in the east china sea uh bumping up against uh japanese assets on the water this is you know a time of high tension and we want it to reduce uh we want that piece to prevail in our region it served us well since the second world war and we need to make sure that every effort goes toward maintaining that peace and that's the priority for the americans for the brits for the canadians for the europeans and and for everybody else when you look at political interference the cyber warfare you speak about are we in a cold war with china at the moment we want good relations with china they're an important trading partner and we want them to be a good neighbour but where australians have seen over the course of covert even uh the the steps that have been taken uh to stop the import of australian wines or barley or other commodities australian farmers actually and producers manufacturers have been quite resilient and found other markets but australia is one of a long long long list of countries uh that's uh that's you know been dealt with by the chinese communist party of china in a particular and aggressive way and we just don't want to see that conduct we want to have a proper dialogue with uh the ccp we want to have a respectful relationship um but we aren't going to compromise on these matters we've introduced as you know over the last couple of years uh bills and and acts to deal with foreign interference which is a very real issue in our country uh the the attempts to interfere in our democratic process uh the theft of intellectual property as i say the commercial industrial scale attacks on cyber now the theft of people's health records the attacks on aged care facilities and their computer systems during the course of covert this is all the conduct that we're talking about the so-called gray zone conduct conduct and it's escalating and and we don't we don't want it to it's unnecessary for a productive relationship and i hope that the chinese communist party can reflect on that what about this port of darwin ownership situation does that need to change well i've asked uh defence to uh conduct a review of uh that particular uh issue they're in the process of doing that they'll provide evidence or advice to me and then i'll return to the national security committee for a discussion on that so there is a security element that we want to look at we're doing that and we'll make an announcement in due course and just finally and briefly when you talk about more american troops being based here how many and how soon we'll we'll have that discussion with the united states now we've got the agreement to to continue on but i would like to see more troops more training and not just americans we have we have obviously a great relationship uh in the quad with japan and india as well as the united states we have a very important relationship with our five eyes partners including new zealand and canada we have collaborations otherwise we're including talisman sabre recently a very significant exercise people from nations you know significant numbers came came together obviously a maintenance and sustainment piece as well so there's a an economic dividend or silver lining in some of this the sustainment of these uh of these crews and people who are based here obviously there's a lot of money that is spent by those partners in our country um so there are swings and roundabouts with uh what's a very significant investment that we're making but a very necessary one to reflect the times and we've made a decision here which is an historic one it's in our national interest it's designed to keep australia safe and secure into the future and that's my job it's the prime minister's job and it's what we've delivered on this week mr dutton thanks so much for your time thanks andrew thank you

Channel: Sky News Australia

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Length: 12min 11sec (731 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021