THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY
SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH CLINTON MAYNARD, 2GB

THURSDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2025

Topics: Dangerous interaction with PLA.

CLINTON MAYNARD: Andrew Hastie is the Shadow Defence Minister. Thank you for joining us, Andrew.

ANDREW HASTIE: My pleasure, Clinton.

CLINTON MAYNARD: If I just start with what's happened in the air. This has occurred above the South China Sea, whereby the Chinese military jet has let off at least several flares and obviously that is against every protocol under the sun in the Defence Force, isn't it?

ANDREW HASTIE: It is. It's dangerous and reckless behaviour, and it could cost people their lives if something were to go wrong. So we condemn this. This is not the behaviour of a friend, and frankly, I'm very surprised and troubled that Richard Marles, our Deputy Prime Minister and part-time Defence Minister, has taken more than 48 hours to brief the media. He hasn't even briefed the Opposition! This is a super cynical and tricky government. The bells here have just rung at Parliament, and we're only just finding out about this. This is after on Monday, I asked the Deputy Prime Minister for a briefing on his trip to the US. These are really important matters, they're national security matters of public interest and it's really important that we have a bipartisan position on this. But the government is weak, and they are not being transparent about this issue.

CLINTON MAYNARD: Would there be some sort of sensitive national security issue which would have prevented them making this public a little earlier this week?

ANDREW HASTIE: I don't think so. This is about politics for the Albanese Government. They know that they're in trouble politically, and they're worried about getting re-elected, and they're putting the national interest behind their own political interests. They could have briefed us on Tuesday when Richard Marles found out about this. This has been happening, though, over the course of the last two and a half years, there's a number of incidents. It's happened to a Seahawk as well, you'd remember, Clinton? It happened to our Navy divers who had a sonar attack launched by a Chinese destroyer. And our Prime Minister failed to raise it at the highest levels. I like to say this – weakness is provocative. When you have a weak government, you're going to see more of this behaviour. It's very troubling.

CLINTON MAYNARD: So in the other incident, it's involved Chinese ships operating effectively in our waters – north-east of Australia in the exclusive economic zone. What would the motivation be, in your experience as a former military man, in your current role, why would China go into those waters?

ANDREW HASTIE: It looks like it's a flex from the People's Liberation Army Navy forces – that's the way I would interpret it. We don't know and of course, I haven't been briefed but given the behaviour over the last two and a half years – I told your listeners about those incidents – with the current incidents, it looks like it's more of a flex on this government. Weakness is provocative, this is a weak government, and the Chinese government is pushing us around.

CLINTON MAYNARD: This should not be political. I would have had an expectation that you, as the Shadow Defence Minister, would have been briefed on Tuesday. Even if there were national security matters in place here in play and we the public couldn't find out, I would have thought it would have been standard protocol that you would be taken through what happened?

ANDREW HASTIE: You'd think so. The Prime Minister is tricky. He knows that power is slipping through his fingers, there's an election due, and this would make him look weak because he hasn't stood up for our national interests. He failed to stand up for our sailors when this happened over the last 18-months and of course, he's not being transparent about this now. This is not good enough. This is not good enough. We really need to come together on this, and he has failed to brief us. Instead, he's just done a cynical drop after Parliament has risen on a Thursday afternoon.

CLINTON MAYNARD: Yeah, and that's a good point as well. Parliament won't be returning, most likely, before the next election. So effectively, the government's able to avoid scrutiny on this. Thank you for your time, Andrew.

ANDREW HASTIE: Thanks, Clinton.

[ENDS]