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Speaker 1: As I mentioned just a little while ago, we know

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Speaker 1: that the ADF, the Marine rotation in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: and Indonesian National Armed Forces they've been taking part in

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Speaker 1: a trilateral humanitarian and disaster relief activities in the top end.

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Speaker 1: It's all part of Exercise Crocodile Response. It's staged at

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Speaker 1: the Rabbits, the Roberts and Barracks, I should say, the

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Speaker 1: Mount Bundy training area, and the exercise is aiming to

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Speaker 1: enhance well, our relationship I guess, and the way that

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Speaker 1: we work between Australia and the United States and Indonesia.

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Speaker 1: And joining me on the line to tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about exactly what is going on, and

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Speaker 1: it is the commander of Headquarters Northern Command, Captain Mitchell Livingstone.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Kevin.

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Speaker 1: How are you? Yeah, really well, thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for your time this morning. Now, can you talk us

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Speaker 1: through the exercises. What exactly is happening is part of

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Speaker 1: Exercise Crocodile Response.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks very much. A multilateral exercise between the ADF,

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Speaker 2: the US Marine Corps that's currently on rotation in Darwen,

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Speaker 2: and the National Armed Forces of Indonesia supported by our

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Speaker 2: government agencies, from government agencies from all those countries that

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Speaker 2: would play a role when we have to go down

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Speaker 2: the path of a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. We

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Speaker 2: did a week in Bogue, or Indonesia, hosted by the

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Speaker 2: Indonesian military and our government agencies over there about academics

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Speaker 2: phase where we share our experiences, our resources and how

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Speaker 2: we might tackle a problem which is fascinating. We learned

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Speaker 2: a lot from the Indonesian experience as they unfortunately had

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Speaker 2: to deal with this fairly regularly. Then we had a

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Speaker 2: week in Robertson Barracks where a civil Military Ops center

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Speaker 2: was formed and they had to address the prickly problem

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Speaker 2: of a humanitarian mission of a fictitious nation that was

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Speaker 2: hit by a cyclone. This week at Mount Dundy, we've

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Speaker 2: got about three hundred people from all from the three

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Speaker 2: nations involved and the civil agencies doing some discrete vignettes.

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Speaker 2: Things like a mass casualty exercise will occur today. They've

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Speaker 2: had to work out the establishment of an internally displaced

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Speaker 2: person's camp and things like mass water purification. So that's

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Speaker 2: having at Mount Dungee as we speak this morning.

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Speaker 1: So that's actually happening this morning. Now, does it mean

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Speaker 1: that everybody's going to be better equipped really to respond

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Speaker 1: to disaster situations should they arise?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, if we can do this in peace time, at

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Speaker 2: our own speed and pause and learn from what we're

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Speaker 2: going through at the moment, If we do have to

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Speaker 2: do it for a real humanitarian mission where time is critical,

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Speaker 2: it is always complex, they are always unique. We're just

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Speaker 2: all three of us are much better prepared for regional disasters.

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Speaker 1: And how exactly does it sort of enhance as well

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Speaker 1: the operability between the three countries.

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Speaker 2: The opportunity to work side by side dealing with complex

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Speaker 2: problems at our pace of choice, gives us time to

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Speaker 2: build the relationships, understand the resources and the assets, and

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Speaker 2: how different people look at the problem is just absolutely priceless.

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Speaker 2: If we do have to do it at speed or

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Speaker 2: at a crisis or in conflict, because we've got those

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Speaker 2: established relationships, that interoperability, it just makes the whole process

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Speaker 2: far more efficient. And this leads to the whole attempt

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Speaker 2: to try and bring peace and security instability to the

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Speaker 2: Indo Pacific region that all three nations have a key

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Speaker 2: role and a key interest in.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like a massive exercise. How many I mean

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Speaker 1: how many people are taking part.

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Speaker 2: Today at Mount Bundi. We've got approximately three hundred from

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Speaker 2: the three countries involved, and all sorts of assets from army,

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Speaker 2: from the Marines and from the Indonesia Armed Forces. The

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Speaker 2: civil agencies down there include DEFAT and os AID and

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Speaker 2: the similar agencies from the other nations dealing with a

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Speaker 2: really realistic problem. Down there. We've got role players acting

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Speaker 2: as distressed villages, so it'll be quite a challenging day

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Speaker 2: for them.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like it will be. Tell me a bit

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Speaker 1: more about those assets as well, and is there any

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Speaker 1: way that territorians can sort of see any of what's

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Speaker 1: going on?

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Speaker 2: The exercise isn't open to the public, but will certainly

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Speaker 2: put out as much as many photos and media as

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Speaker 2: we can because we're quite happy to share this with

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Speaker 2: the local public. Darwen is a fantastic area to stage

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Speaker 2: these missions from, and certainly Darwen has its own experience

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Speaker 2: with disasters as well, so not only can we do

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Speaker 2: disasters north of our region, but we can also use

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Speaker 2: all these nations and all these assets to help domestic problems.

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Speaker 1: So how long is it going for?

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Speaker 2: It'll wrap up this week so that's a conclusion of

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Speaker 2: three weeks. Again Indonesia Robertson barracks in Mountain Bundy, and

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Speaker 2: then the nations will will pack up all the kit

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Speaker 2: they've brought, desalination plants, tonnage of trucks, you know, first aid,

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Speaker 2: we've got a role to hospital the Marines have established

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Speaker 2: out at Mount Bundy, which is capable of trauma surgery

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Speaker 2: mainly penetrating wounds from impact injuries. And they will go

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Speaker 2: to their separate ways Friday afternoon.

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Speaker 1: Goodness mate, it sounds like a pretty phenomenal exercise. I

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Speaker 1: know that you know that you guys sort of get

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Speaker 1: involved in things like this fairly regularly, I'm assuming, but

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Speaker 1: you know, do we do exercises like this, particularly with

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Speaker 1: other countries very often?

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Speaker 2: Yes, we do. Yeah, history dictates that. Certainly Australia. We've

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Speaker 2: done recently Vanua to assist Optolera assist op FIGI assist,

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Speaker 2: which is all humanitarian missions in our region. We've shared

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Speaker 2: those with our nations who can bring assets or are

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Speaker 2: closer to the problem. Indonesia has a similar history of

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Speaker 2: quite traumatic tsunamis and cyclones and earthquakes as does the US,

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Speaker 2: and so doing these exercises regularly make sure that we're

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Speaker 2: ready for when and it will happen again. It also

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Speaker 2: helps those relationships if we need to go and face

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Speaker 2: a more complex problem.

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Speaker 1: Well, Commander of the Northern Command, Captain I should say,

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Speaker 1: Mitchell Livingstone, I really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks

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Speaker 1: so very much for having a chat with us about

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Speaker 1: exercise Crocodile Response.

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Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katy, thank you.