GRAEME GOODINGS: The Prime Minister of Australia has joined us now, Scott Morrison. Prime Minister, thanks for being with us today.
PRIME MINISTER: G'day Graeme.
GOODINGS: You've got some announcement or something you'd like to say about the submarines?
PRIME MINISTER: I've heard some of that misreporting that's been occurring in relation to the building of nuclear powered submarines. And I just want to put people's minds at rest. I mean, there's no change to our policy here. We will build submarines in South Australia, and we will build as much of them in SA as we possibly can. And any suggestion that's being made to the contrary is just frankly false and misleading.
Of course we need to get them built as quickly as possible. But that doesn't change our commitment to build as much of those submarines in SA as we possibly can. It's not a question of if, it's a question of how. And we've already acted to secure more land at the shipyards, following visits by the US and UK experts in Adelaide, and next week the US Armed Services Committee and the delegation visiting Osborne. That's how committed our AUKUS partners are to us having a build program in SA, because when I put the AUKUS deal together, the whole point wasn't just that we could have nuclear powered submarines, but that we would be adding to the number of nuclear powered submarines being built. So they're already building them in the United States and the United Kingdom. And the three of us, Joe Biden and myself and Boris Johnson wanted to see more of them built and have our capability to build them here in Australia to add. So I just wanted to be really clear. I mean, there's some mischievous things going on in sort of an electoral context, and we can't have that being played with Australia's national security. So I just want to put that to rest, absolutely.
GOODINGS: Well, you were quoted in the Australian as saying that the paramount goal is not to build them in Adelaide, but to ensure we get the capability as soon as we can?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course, we need to get the capability as soon as we can, but that doesn't change our commitment to what we're doing in South Australia, at all. At all. All I was saying yesterday was consistent with everything we've said, and so they are going to be built in South Australia. But the question was how much of them is going to be built in South Australia? And my answer to that is as much as we possibly can. I mean, obviously, the reactors are not things we can do in South Australia, and there are, we haven't down-selected to the particular model yet. And so as a result, there'll be a lot of technical issues that we'll have to work through. But the whole point of the AUKUS agreement is to ensure that we have a capability to build nuclear powered submarines in Australia and that we're adding to the overall combined effect, combined force, of nuclear powered submarines that the AUKUS partners can put in the water. And so, you know, it's, you know, elections come up and people get a bit mischievous and sometimes can take things out of context. But I just want to be really clear about that. There's been no change to our commitment. And as you can see from the work that is being done, the visits that are being undertaken, you know, we've been very clear about our commitment. And that's exactly what we'll do.
GOODINGS: You can't quantify, though, how much of the submarines will be built here?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no one can. I mean, because we haven't down-selected to the actual submarine. Obviously, the nuclear reactors can't be built in Australia, and everyone knows that. And then we have to work from there to determine those things that ... we can only build in Australia what we can actually build and everything we can build it is our intention to do just that.
GOODINGS: Prime Minister, thanks for calling in today. You obviously feel very concerned about this because you're a busy man. You're about to call the election, by the way. Can you tell us when it's going to be called?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'll be getting to that very shortly. And the election campaign, I think, is going to be very important, and that's why it needs to be, you know, fought on the issues and on the facts. And that's why I wanted to be sure that particularly on this question, of the building of submarines, that there was no doubt in the minds of people of South Australia and that, that words wouldn't be twisted or anything like that. We're the government that actually has stepped forward on this. We're the ones who've stepped forward with the Hunter Frigates. We've already completed a massive part of the shipyard down there at Osbourne to that task, and we're getting on with that, and there's thousands and thousands of jobs. But those jobs aren't just about ensuring that we have that economic advantage. It's also about ensuring we have the defence advantage of sovereign capability of building, manufacturing our defence assets, and that's what keeps Australians safe.
GOODINGS: There's been a lot of negative reaction to the fact that the cancellation of the French submarine was going to cost us $5.5 billion.
PRIME MINISTER: I've seen that report, I mean, provisions are made, but that's, no that's not what is necessarily at the end of the day, how these things will be settled. But I mean, the fundamental question there is, and we would, we would, would have ended up building a submarine that events had overtaken. I mean, having a conventionally powered submarine out in the next generation is not what was going to deliver for Australia. And so, I took the hard decision, which said no, we need to change tact. We need to go for something better and we were able to achieve that with the AUKUS arrangement, the most significant defence arrangement in 70 years since ANZUS. And that gives us the capability. You know, you don't just keep going with something because, you know, it might be difficult not to. You've got to make the right decisions in the national interest and this is the right decision. And, we took those issues into account when we made that decision.
GOODINGS: Australia's going to build hypersonic missiles. Is this a sign of the times with what's happening in Ukraine and the, the sort of situation with China?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, certainly, but things that we had already planned for, and that the AUKUS agreement when we pulled it together, had these elements built into it, and we've now announced that that's been part of the agreement. We've said for some years now that we need to extend our long range defence capability and the development of hypersonic weapons is critical to that. And that's why the AUKUS agreement is so transformational for Australia. It isn't just about nuclear powered submarines, it's about quantum, it's about artificial intelligence, it's about cyber. As you know, in the Budget, we put $10 billion, just shy of that, into our cyber warfare, offensive and defensive capabilities because the first shots fired in any conflict these days won't be out of a gun, they'll be to disable and dismantle and disrupt our energy, our banking systems, all of this. And that's why we need to invest in those cyber capabilities. And that's a key part of the AUKUS arrangement as well. It is massively enabling us to upscale our capabilities together with our biggest and most trusted partners, the United States and the United Kingdom.
GOODINGS: Prime Minister, thanks for calling in today. Appreciate your call.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.
