Interview of Brendan O’Connor MP shadow minister for defence member for Gorton Scrapped Taipan helicopters, Beijing Games boycott.

DANICA De GIORGIO: Joining me now live to discuss is the Shadow Defence Minister Brendan O’Connor. Brendan O’Connor, thank you for joining me. Does Labor support this decision?

BRENDAN O’CONNOR, SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE: Well, we’d like to be briefed by the Defence Department and the ADF and the Government in relation to why we had to do this. Really, the scrapping of the Taipan fleet is another example of massive waste of billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money on Defence assets that have failed.

The decision originally was made by the Howard Government, and the government at the time was advised to purchase Black Hawk helicopters. So the decision that we’re making now is the one that was rejected by the previous Liberal Government when it was put to them, they should be purchasing Blackhawk helicopters.

So look, I’ll wait for the briefing, but I do need to say this, we need to know why we’ve had to go so long with the Taipan fleet if they’re not effective. How much money has been wasted? How much additional money, how many billions of dollars will we spend now on this new purchase? And will there be loss to jobs domestically? Will there be a loss of sovereign capability because we’re not going to be building in Australia?

So we need to know all of the consequences because, as I say, this government talks big when it comes to Defence, but they fail to manage Defence asset contracts.

De GIORGIO: There have been troubles with the Taipans, does that not justify the extra spend on the Blackhawks?

O’CONNOR: As I say, they were advised, the Liberal Government was advised to purchase the Blackhawks back in 2004 and they chose not to. They chose to go the other direction and now we’re seeing them having to scrap that. So I’ll of course listen to the ADF and the Defence Department and the Government as to why. I’d like to get a briefing. Of course, I’m sure that will be provided to me. Of course, we want to make sure that the Defence Force have the most effective capability to defend themselves and defend our nation and so we’ll reserve our judgment as to whether it’s the right decision.

But I just make the point again, we’ve got a frigate program that’s $10 billion in excess of what it should be contracted, we just terminated the Attack Class submarine contracts, costing billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, and now we’re scrapping the Taipan fleet, costing billions and spending an additional additional $7 billion on these new helicopters.

I just think this is a litany of waste and a litany of mismanagement by a government who’s had six Defence Ministers in eight years, four Defence Ministers under the Prime Minister. It’s quite remarkable that there’s been no coherent, consistent approach by this Government for nearly nine years in relation to our national security.

De GIORGIO: These are, of course, American models that have been selected. Would Labor have wanted this to go to tender in the first place?

O’CONNOR: Well again, I’d like to be briefed. The Blackhawk helicopters are a remarkable asset, a remarkable craft. I’ve been fortunate to, when I was a Minister, to use them. We have used them in Australia. They’re a remarkable asset and I’m not suggesting for one moment that that’s not a potentially good thing. But I’d like to get a briefing as to what we do now. What’s the effect on our Defence industry? Will we lose skills? What we have to remember, we need to purchase the right assets but we also have to enlarge our Defence industry so we can build and maintain assets here as well.

So yes, of course, we want to be interoperable with our allies, particularly the United States, but we also want to build our own Defence industry, because that in itself is an asset for our national security.

De GIORGIO: So should this have gone to tender then?

O’CONNOR: We’ll look again, I think it’s a bit early for me until I’m briefed. I don’t have the information that’s been at the disposal of the Government. I don’t have access to all of the information. Normally, can I say Danica, you would expect a tendering process. But it seems to me what’s happened is the Government’s made a litany of mistakes and the sixth Defence Minister, Minister Dutton is seeking to fix that, but he’s talking as if he’s coming after a bad government. He has, the bad government is his government. He’s coming in after five previous Defence Ministers have failed in so many ways to manage these very important, very expensive Defence contracts.

De GIORGIO: All right, Brendan O’Connor, I want to ask you about the situation with China and Australia’s diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. What do you think about China’s response to this? They have essentially said that they don’t care.

O’CONNOR: I think the decision was a correct one, and we supported the Government in making the decision. Clearly, we’re concerned about human rights abuses and for that reason, we had no concern, in fact, we supported the Prime Minister’s decision there. I mean, it’s up to China as to how they respond to that, but we’re making our point along with other countries as to the concerns we have in that country in relation to minorities. And I think it was the right decision.

De GIORGIO: Do you think that there will be retaliation from the Chinese government in response?

O’CONNOR: Well, we’ll have to wait and see. There’s no doubt that China has become more assertive and in many instances more aggressive in the region recently. But we need to make sure we make our views clear. Look, we would like to see our relationship with China to be a pragmatic and mutually beneficial one They’re our largest trading partner. We’d like to see peace and stability maintained in the region. That’s what we should be seeking to do. But we also have to protect our interests and defend our values and express our views openly and clearly. And that’s what we’ve done here and Labor supports that position.

De GIORGIO: Shadow Defence Minister, Brendan O’Connor, we have to leave it there. Thank you for joining me this afternoon.

O’CONNOR: Thanks very much.