891 ABC Adelaide

IAN HENSCHKE: Let’s go now to the Federal Defence Minister, Christopher Pyne. Good afternoon, Minister.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Ian, how are you?

IAN HENSCHKE: Very well, thank you.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good.

IAN HENSCHKE: I think it’s the first time we’ve had you on the Drive program. But …

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No it’s not.

IAN HENSCHKE: No, isn’t? Okay, good.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: [Laughs] You had me on talking about SAHMRI 2 …

IAN HENSCHKE: Oh, yes, well let-

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: … Only six months ago. How quickly you’ve forgotten.

IAN HENSCHKE: I know, doesn’t time fly. Now, let’s talk about the speed of these planes that are coming to Adelaide. They can fly at nearly 1000 kilometres an hour. Now, what are these planes and why are they going to bring jobs?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: The new replacement for the Orion is an aircraft called the Poseidon, Poseidon Maritime Patrol and Response Aircraft. So, people would be familiar with the Orion because it’s been in service for many decades, obviously constantly upgraded and improved and new aircraft purchased, but it does the surveillance work, very high-end surveillance, especially across northern waters of Australia, but has also been used into South East Asia, across to the Middle East, et cetera.

And that air craft is coming to an end and the Poseidon begins at the end of this year. There will be the first one in service at the end of this year and then there’ll be eight eventually. They’re being purchased from Boeing in the United States. It will create 35 jobs at Edinburgh Air Base, because that’s where they’ll be maintained and serviced. That contract’s worth about $41 million dollars to our economy in South Australia.

So, we will not be losing the defence capability of that high-end surveillance and the improved features for the Poseidon are that is has the capacity to engage in anti-submarine and surface ship warfare. So, if it identifies enemy submarines or surface ships, it can take action against them and it can also, of course, survey where they are and get that information back to where it needs to be received and it has its own capacity to defend itself, which the Orion doesn’t have.

IAN HENSCHKE: And the Orion was the one that was used looking for the lost Malaysian airliner, wasn’t it? That was the …

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yeah, the Orion has been an amazing work horse of the Air Force. It’s done tremendous amount of different jobs, one of those has been trying to find the MH370 in the South Indian Ocean and it’s done a great deal of work, of course, over many years in helping our soldiers and sailors to identify where the enemy might be or where people we’re looking for might be.

IAN HENSCHKE: Okay, so the good news in terms of local jobs, there’s 35 local jobs. Now, does that mean that they’ll be Air Force personnel that will be coming in from interstate to live here or are they going to be jobs that will be advertised namely, you know, air craft engineer needed, apply at Edinburgh Air Force Base; what are those jobs actually?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It’ll probably be a bit of both. So, the managers of the project, many of those will be sourced from within the Air Force and there’ll be new jobs created, as you say, in terms of air craft engineers and others to maintain and sustain the Poseidon. So, it’ll both improve our population in a minor way but also improve our economy at Edinburgh Air Base.

Edinburgh Air Base is becoming very much the centre for many of these kinds of air craft, so there’ll also be the unmanned aerial vehicles based at Edinburgh as well. That’ll be another announcement to be made in terms of maintenance and sustainment down the track.

IAN HENSCHKE: Is that a drone?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, it’s another name for a drone, yes.

IAN HENSCHKE: Right, okay.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: The very big ones.

IAN HENSCHKE: Drones that can do work in the Middle East.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yes.

IAN HENSCHKE: Does that mean – and, you know, I hate to say this – but does that mean that you have now got an Air Force base that becomes a potential sight for attack? I mean, is there a downside? Like, the more we beef it up, the more we become a target?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, every base in Australia has the potential for being a target, of course, and we hope that day will never come. And, of course, since the Second World War, Australia hasn’t been a target for enemy attack, which is a blessing to us all and we want to make sure it stays that way but, of course, any base in Australia is a potential target whether it’s the listening bases we have in Central Australia and Northern Australia or whether it’s Edinburgh and right around the country.

IAN HENSCHKE: Now, just quickly before we move onto another topic, I see today that there is a lot of news coming out of the Middle East, obviously ISIS is on the run. Can you tell us any more about what is actually happening, have you been briefed?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, the war against terror in Syria and Iraq is definitely going our way and we are making great progress. The reach of ISIL has been limited and restricted and is now starting to recede. Preparations are very well advanced for a final assault on the city of Mosul, which is the largest city that ISIL has occupied since the beginning of their offensive into Iraq and, of course, Australia is part of the operations that will hopefully take Mosul in the not too distant future, as they have been part of the operations across Syria and Northern Iraq over the last little while.

IAN HENSCHKE: And just one other bit of news, I’d like your comments on Bob Day’s resignation; surprise to you?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yes, it’s a real shock. Obviously I’ve known Bob Day very well for a long time because he was a long time member of the Liberal Party and his businesses was always a very successful one. It’s a great tragedy that, as he himself says, he admits making a bad business decision to purchase Huxley Homes in New South Wales 2003 and, of course, because he went into the Senate as he said himself, he’s been distracted from keeping the business on track and it’s a great sadness for him.

He’s also said that the people whose houses are being built by these various businesses will all be completed because of the insurance that he has in place, which is a good thing for them, but it’s a sadness for Bob Day. I think he was a very good senator for South Australia and for Family First and I wish him all the best, because I know he must be going through a very, very difficult time.

IAN HENSCHKE: And Tony Abbott has said that he would like to see an equally smart and principled replacement.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, that’s a matter for Family First. I’m sure whomever Family First chooses will be an excellent representative for their political party and hopefully for the electors of South Australia, whether they voted for them or not.

IAN HENSCHKE: Alright, thank you very much for your time this afternoon, Christopher Pyne.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It’s a pleasure, thank you.

IAN HENSCHKE: Federal Defence Minister.