PRIME MINISTER:
Ladies and gentleman, it is a real thrill for me to be here today at RAAF Base Amberley, to be in the presence of the Chief of Air Force, to be in your presence to make the important announcement that the Government has decided to purchase an additional two C-17 Globemaster Aircraft.
I want to thank the men and women of this base for the work that you have done on these aircraft and the work that you do with these aircraft to give our country the global reach that it now has thanks to these magnificent workhorses of the sky.
Just in the last little while, these aircraft have been crucial to Australia's response to the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, to the floods here in Queensland, to the cyclone in Vanuatu and to our military operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Thanks to our aerial refuelers these aircraft will shortly be able to go anywhere in the world within 24 hours. We are a country with global interests and thanks to these aircraft we will have considerable global reach and I want to again thank all of you for your professionalism and your commitment that makes it possible for our country to play an important part in the wider world thanks to the capacity that these aircraft give us.
I also want to say today a word of thanks and appreciation to the Chief of Air Force, Air Marshall Geoff Brown. The Australian Air Force has never been more capable. Royal Australian Air Force strike aircraft are flying missions right now in the Middle East. We flew what you could say was a self-contained air taskforce to the Middle East late last year. They got there without the need for support from any other nation and now our refueler, our AWAC aircraft, is enabling coalition air operations over the whole Middle Eastern theatre. So, this is extraordinary work that we are doing as a nation and that you are doing as the Royal Australian Air Force.
Chief, thank you for the contribution that you've made over many decades to the Royal Australian Air Force. When you step down shortly you can be very proud of your work. Everyone here can be very proud of his or her work but this is a Royal Australian Air Force in better shape than it's ever been before and it will be in even better shape in a few months’ time with the acquisition of these two additional splendid Globemaster aircraft.
CHIEF OF AIR FORCE:
Prime Minister, thank you very much.
Prime Minister, it's really a great pleasure to be here today on what is a very significant occasion, not only for the Royal Australian Air Force but for the ADF and I believe the nation. I'd like to thank the Prime Minister, especially, for his enthusiastic support for the acquisition of these two additional C-17s and also thank him for acknowledging the significant contribution that 36 Squadron and the C-17 have made since their introduction in 2007.
In the past 12 months we've seen 36 Squadron and these aircraft operate around the globe. Just to name a couple: Operation Bring Them Home after the tragic shooting down of MH-17 – as the Prime Minister said they were involved in deploying our air task group to Iraq; and just in the last few weeks, along with 27 squadron were involved in that air bridge to Vanuatu where over 10 days they offloaded more than 1.5 million pounds of humanitarian aid. 36 squadron and the C-17 aircraft capability and the many people involved in it have really been on a continuous surge for the last 12 months. On many occasions we've flown consistently all six aircraft every day.
The seventh and eighth aircraft that have been announced today and the initial additional facilities and people will allow 36 Squadron to continue and sustain that rate of effort well into the future.
Later this year the Air Force will reach the point where it will have doubled its airlift capacity since 2005. I think it's often said that Australia's unique geography provides us with strategic depth. However, that same geography necessitates a robust, flexible and responsive air mobility fleet that has strategic reach and with the announcement today I think that we do guarantee that for the nation.
Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you so much, Geoff.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am proposing to take some questions but before I do, our nation has lost an icon.
Richie Benaud passed away overnight. Richie Benaud has been the voice of cricket. There would be very few Australians who have not passed a summer in the company of Richie Benaud.
He was the accompaniment of an Australian summer. His voice was even more present than the chirping of the cicadas in our suburbs and towns and that voice, tragically, is now still.
But we remember him with tremendous affection. He hasn't just been the voice of cricket since the early 1960s, he was an extraordinarily successful Australian cricket captain. He led our country for five years in 28 Tests and he never lost a Test series.
He was the first cricketer to achieve the remarkable double of 2,000 Test runs and 200 Test wickets. This is the greatest loss for cricket since the loss of Don Bradman and for that reason I'm pleased to have offered the Benaud family a State funeral.
This is a sad day for everyone who loves cricket and it's a sad day for everyone who has felt that Richie Benaud is a part of his or her life.
Are there any questions?
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, how many local jobs do you think this will create in this area?
PRIME MINISTER:
This is a $1 billion acquisition, about $700 million on the two additional aircraft and the spares and sustainment over their life and about $300 million to upgrade the base here with additional hangars, additional tarmac and so on. So, it's a $1 billion commitment to greater operational capability by the Royal Australian Air Force and it's a $300 million injection into the local economy.
QUESTION:
Have recent operations in Iraq or Vanuatu been the driver for this decision at this time?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, as I said earlier, we are a country with global interests and therefore it is important that we have at least some global reach and these aircraft very much augment our global reach, whether it be for military operations, whether it be for humanitarian support. These aircraft make the strong arm of Australia longer than would otherwise be the case because these aircraft, particularly with aerial refuelling, can go potentially right around the world, anywhere in the world where there is an airstrip capable of handling these aircraft, we can get to within about 24 hours thanks to these planes and the refuelling capabilities that the KC-30s give us. So, this is a very important addition to Australia's global stature.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, can you confirm a team of Australian Special Forces have been sent to Turkey [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I can confirm that the usual sorts of security precautions are in place. This is a very important commemorative event. It's the biggest commemorative event that we've ever really had. The Gallipoli landing was in an important sense the birth of our nation. Certainly it was the coming of age, we thought, then, we think today of our nation and the Centenary of ANZAC is a very important moment in the life of our country and because ANZAC didn't just involve Australia, it involved New Zealand, it involved the United Kingdom, it involved France, India, so many other countries, Turkey obviously, this is an important international event and we need appropriate security. So, these are simply the normal security precautions that you'd expect for an event of this importance and this scale.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what can you tell us [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I'm not going to comment on operational matters because it's the long and well respected tradition by people in positions of authority not to comment on that kind of operational detail. But the point I've long made is that it is a very dangerous place, do not go to the Middle East if you are up to no good because if you are up to no good, no good may find you and it's a very dangerous place and people should not go there.
QUESTION:
The GST carve up, do you have a preferred option for Western Australia's share?
PRIME MINISTER:
The point I want to make is that the GST is a tax that is raised for the states to be spent by the states – that's what it's for. It is a state tax and if there's ever to be any change in the GST, including any change in the distribution of the GST, it has to be something that the states decide and agree.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, these are very early days. We are certainly working very closely with the Queensland government. We've provided some additional funding. There are Commonwealth officials that are now working closely on a joint taskforce with the state governments. So, this is very early days for this particular issue and let's see where it goes, but obviously it is important that our biosecurity is maintained and it's important that we do everything we can to ensure that the disease-free status of Australian agriculture is maintained and that's what people expect of government and that's what this Government is determined to deliver. But in a case like this we've got to do it in as close as possible cooperation with the Queensland government.
QUESTION:
Just very quickly, do you think there should be further investigation into these voting irregularity allegations regarding the Labor leadership?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, that's a perfectly reasonable question but I normally make it my practice not to get too deeply involved in the internal machinations of other political parties.
[ends]