Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, June seventeen, twenty twenty five. Aaron Patterson created
Speaker 1: four calculated deceptions and told bald faced lies and that's
Speaker 1: why she should be convicted of deliberately murdering three elderly
Speaker 1: relatives and attempting to murder a fourth. That's the crown
Speaker 1: closing in the Mushroom trial, where Patterson has pleaded not guilty.
Speaker 1: Defense barrister at Colin Mandy sc will make his closing
Speaker 1: submissions this week. You can follow every Twist live at
Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot a U. How to deal
Speaker 1: with Donald Trump? Give him what he wants. That's the
Speaker 1: advice for Anthony Alberonizi's first face to face meeting with
Speaker 1: the US President on Wednesday, from the President's former golf
Speaker 1: buddy and our former ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey.
Speaker 1: Plus what the Australian government really thinks about the possibility
Speaker 1: of war with China? What happens if China invades Taiwan?
Speaker 1: Would China attack Australia? Would America defend us? Now we
Speaker 1: have a big clue to what the Australian government doesn't
Speaker 1: say out loud what they are really thinking.
Speaker 2: China's conventional military build up is the most significant military
Speaker 2: build up that we have seen, conventional military build up
Speaker 2: that we have seen since the end of the Second World.
Speaker 1: War, Visa's Defense Minister Richard Miles, speaking at the Australians
Speaker 1: Defending Australia summit in Canberra.
Speaker 3: And it means that Australia's geography today is more relevant
Speaker 3: to great power contests than it has been at any
Speaker 3: point since the end of the Second World War, arguably
Speaker 3: at any point in our history.
Speaker 1: A bit later, he said it again.
Speaker 4: Our continent is more relevant to great power contest now
Speaker 4: than it's ever been before.
Speaker 1: Now, if you read between those lines, what Miles is
Speaker 1: saying is that Australia won't be invaded by China in
Speaker 1: the future. Australia's too big to invade. Our biggest risk
Speaker 1: is being completely isolated by China cutting off our sea
Speaker 1: lanes and undersea communication cables. But what we would be
Speaker 1: doing if war breaks out is hosting American forces in
Speaker 1: an even bigger way than we do now. The rotating
Speaker 1: US bombers at our northern bases, the US marines from
Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven will have the Submarine Rotational Force West,
Speaker 1: and the US is putting logistics facilities and fuel dumps
Speaker 1: in northern Australia. That means we'd be hosting heavy bombers,
Speaker 1: troops and missile launch sites. And here's why it matters.
Speaker 5: Chaos in the air between New Zealand and Australia, forcing
Speaker 5: the diversion of forty nine flights when it began a
Speaker 5: live fire exercise.
Speaker 1: In March, Chinese warships entered Australian waters, conducting live fire
Speaker 1: exercises and then circumnavigating our coast.
Speaker 6: In seas never previously sailed by the Chinese Navy. The
Speaker 6: warships are being shadowed by HMAS Stewart and New Zealand
Speaker 6: frigate to Kaha.
Speaker 1: At the time, the government said everything was under control.
Speaker 1: Now they admit it was a very ugly moment. At
Speaker 1: the Defending Australia Summer, the Australian's colonist Chris Yulman pressed.
Speaker 7: Miles, were they targeting our cities? Were they rehearsing targeting
Speaker 7: our cities or any facilities on shore in Australia While
Speaker 7: they were doing that, you would know the answer to
Speaker 7: that question.
Speaker 4: Look, I do know the answer the question. What we
Speaker 4: did with the Chinese Task Group was to engage in
Speaker 4: an unprecedented level of surveillance of that task group, So
Speaker 4: we do know exactly what they were doing and exactly
Speaker 4: what they were rehearsing.
Speaker 7: The other thing that was that we were unable to
Speaker 7: really keep pace with them because that our fuel supply
Speaker 7: ships were in dry dock, won't they So it doesn't
Speaker 7: that we're talking about projecting power. We can't even project
Speaker 7: power around our own continent.
Speaker 4: Well, we did well. We absolutely kept pace with them
Speaker 4: the whole way. And I think the ability for us
Speaker 4: to do that throughout the entirety of the period in
Speaker 4: which that Task Group was in the vicinity of Australia
Speaker 4: sends a very strong message back.
Speaker 1: The Trump administration has announced a thirty day review of
Speaker 1: the Australia US UK Defense Packed ORCUS, and that sent
Speaker 1: a cold chill through everyone in defense. Australia has committed
Speaker 1: to borrow by and then build nuclear powered submarines with
Speaker 1: our allies that Donald Trump hardly seems to have heard
Speaker 1: of the deal signed by Joe Biden.
Speaker 3: Are you discussing ORCUS?
Speaker 4: With the Prime Minister sub But what does that mean,
Speaker 4: Orcus the Australia US defense.
Speaker 8: Line so well, did be discussing that we've had another
Speaker 8: great relationship and you have to deal with Australia.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've had a very good relationship with Australia.
Speaker 9: And now the Pentagon has launched a review of the
Speaker 9: orchest defense pack to make sure it's aligned with President
Speaker 9: Trump's America First agenda.
Speaker 1: The Australian who knows Trump best is Joe Hockey. He's
Speaker 1: former golf buddy and Australia's former ambassador to the US.
Speaker 1: Hockey joined me on stage at Defending Australia. So with
Speaker 1: that expertise in mind, at all your other expertise, how
Speaker 1: would you handle if you were Anthony Albinezi, his first
Speaker 1: face to face meeting with Donald Trump on Wednesday? What
Speaker 1: would be your opening Gamba?
Speaker 8: I'll walk in and say, mister President, you've got a
Speaker 8: war in Ukraine to deal with, You've got a war
Speaker 8: in the Middle East to deal with. You're trying to
Speaker 8: restructure the biggest economy in the world. You've had a
Speaker 8: terrible political assassinations in Minnesota. Everyone that may to ask
Speaker 8: for something I'm here to say what can I do
Speaker 8: to help? Because we're aligned in our interests. We want freedom,
Speaker 8: we want democracy, we want a safe world. What can
Speaker 8: we do to help?
Speaker 1: Like? What?
Speaker 8: So, why not start now? Why are we waiting for
Speaker 8: the orchest subs? Start now? In South Australia building various
Speaker 8: components of the Virginias and the Columbus. An Australian owned company,
Speaker 8: Ostel is already in Alabama building the command centers for
Speaker 8: the Virginias and Columbus class submarines. Australian owned company in
Speaker 8: Alabama is doing it. And why aren't we walking into
Speaker 8: the meeting and saying we're not only giving you a
Speaker 8: check for three billion, we're actually on the ground in
Speaker 8: Alabama helping you to build your submarines.
Speaker 4: Now do you.
Speaker 1: Think this review of ORCAS is going to make any difference?
Speaker 1: Is this just a box taking exercise?
Speaker 8: No? No, And there's an ulterior motive. And the ulterior
Speaker 8: motive is in the United States there is great anxiety
Speaker 8: about the fact they're not producing enough for junior class submarines.
Speaker 8: So our solution isn't to say, Okay, we're going to
Speaker 8: take them off you. Our solution has to be actually
Speaker 8: we're going to help you build them. I'm not saying
Speaker 8: give up on the Orcus, but let's get into that.
Speaker 8: Don't just say, oh, we're going to send you these
Speaker 8: critical minerals and rare earths and you can do it all.
Speaker 8: They've got blockages. I say, Okay, here's our solution. We've
Speaker 8: got e three visas. We can bring people over, you
Speaker 8: train them, We'll set up a maintenance facility in South
Speaker 8: Australia and Henderson and we will deliver. We will help
Speaker 8: you to reach your goals so that we both win.
Speaker 1: Coming up, drones have changed warfare, so why don't we
Speaker 1: get them instead of submarines. Drones have changed warfare forever.
Speaker 1: In Ukraine, tiny light armed drones have devastated Russia's frontline
Speaker 1: troops and equipment. So why are we building billion dollar
Speaker 1: subs instead of buying underwater drones and long range strike missiles.
Speaker 1: Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Jonathan Meade is.
Speaker 10: Blunt to conflict drones and nuclear powered submarines is to
Speaker 10: completely misunderstand our strategic context. We are the custodians of
Speaker 10: the third largest exclusive economic zone on the planet, and
Speaker 10: with our small navy, that's about five hundred and forty
Speaker 10: square kilometers per sale in the Royal Australian Navy. We're
Speaker 10: a nation that drives our economic well being and there
Speaker 10: for our national security potential from access to the sea.
Speaker 10: Our six hundred and fifty billion dollar a year import
Speaker 10: export economy and the majority of the rest of the
Speaker 10: one point seven trillion dollar annual economy isn't it enabled
Speaker 10: by access to the sea. Either those sea lines are communications, deports, infrastructure,
Speaker 10: or the sixteen seabed cables that connect us to the world.
Speaker 10: We have few existential issues as a nation, but access
Speaker 10: to the sea is absolutely one of those, and none
Speaker 10: of those other technologies can contribute as strongly to assuring
Speaker 10: that access to the sea. As a naval nuclear propulsion program,
Speaker 10: you cannot do the job of one of these submarines
Speaker 10: with one hundred uncrued underwater systems, and frankly, the technology
Speaker 10: at the moment doesn't even allow you to operate those
Speaker 10: in the international waters without assurance of being able to
Speaker 10: avoid a collision, something we're working very hard on. So
Speaker 10: great question. All of those things are in the mix
Speaker 10: of the integrated force that the ADF is developing, but
Speaker 10: the principal capability and likely to determine our success at
Speaker 10: sea in the future.
Speaker 1: Is this program all the smartest minds in defense? Read
Speaker 1: the Australian so to find out how this country is
Speaker 1: going to play a part in the world wars and
Speaker 1: peace of the future. Join us at the Australian dot
Speaker 1: Com dot a U