SARAH ABO, HOST: Joining us to discuss today’s headlines is Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, Sam Rae, and New South Wales Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane. Good morning to you both, good to see you. Sam, we’ll start with you if I could. So, if Donald Trump does call on Australia, would we seriously consider sending in support and being drawn further into this conflict?
SAM RAE, MINISTER FOR AGED CARE AND SENIORS: Dood morning Sarah. Obviously, our efforts and focus have been about ensuring freedom of navigation and making sure that Australia gets the supplies that it needs. Those diplomatic efforts are ongoing. The new Chief of Defence Force’s comments speak for themselves. We haven’t received any official request regarding the Straits of Hormuz, but obviously we’ll continue to focus on making sure that our national interest is served and we can get the supplies that we need through the shipping lanes.
HOST: Do you think it's necessary though Sam, because the UK has ruled it out?
RAE: Well, there's an upcoming summit between the UK and France and other parts of the world. We'll be engaging in that. I think there needs to be a broader conversation amongst our international partners about how we secure those shipping routes.
HOST: Kellie, does it sound as though the ADF and the Government may be at odds here with their views on this? I mean, the ADF is saying we can do this. The Australian Government is saying we may not be drawn into this and we certainly haven't received a call. Are they at odds?
KELLIE SLOANE, NSW OPPOSITION LEADER: Well, the Chief of Defence has said that we are ready if called and we want to be ready as a nation but that is not a political question, that's a strategic question. The political question will be for the Prime Minister, and we're calling for the Prime Minister to be transparent about the engagement he's having with the US, and if we are called, why we would enter if that's a decision he makes.
HOST: It's just getting harder and harder, Sam, I think, to see where this is going to go, right? And we've got Chris Bowen, you know, back home now, leaving the door open, I guess, for states to establish their own fuel reserves. WA has confirmed it is considering creating its own strategic stockpile of diesel. Isn't this the kind of COVID-style confusion that we were hoping to avoid?
RAE: Well, you're right in a sense, Sarah, that it is very unpredictable, the nature. We are not participants in the conflict in the Middle East. We weren't consulted about the conflict in the Middle East before it began. Unfortunately, Australia is not immune from those international occurrences. But our focus is on making sure that Australians have what they need. We're working with our international partners. These things need to be done sensibly. They need to be done carefully to make sure that Australians' interests are always front and foremost in the Government's decision-making.
HOST: But you also don't want to be impotent, do you, Sam? This is the issue. Like, obviously, we weren't consulted. No-one was ahead of this conflict, now we're drawn into it, and now Australians are suffering on a daily basis, and it seems as though there may not be an end in sight.
RAE: Again, I think we are not immune. The reality is we are not immune from these international pressures, and we've seen fuel prices go up very rapidly and that's affecting communities across the country including right here in my community. Minister Bowen's been clear. We do have our supply of fuel arriving as expected at this stage but we're watching very closely to make sure that Australia's national interest is front and foremost in every single decision that we make.
HOST: Kellie, it seems people aren't buying Chris Bowen's assurances. So have the states been left to their own devices?
SLOANE: Yeah, to Sam's point, it is not okay to say we didn't know there was going to be a war. Oh, ‘we're stuck now, we're going to be responsive to it’. We are absolutely required to look at our future resilience, and that's exactly what the Liberals and Nationals have been calling for in New South Wales saying that we should be relying on reports that are already sitting there, a Chief Scientist report that was released last year gathering dust on fuel resilience, our capacity, our storage in New South Wales to make sure that at least in the future we are prepared for any future fuel shocks that might hit us. And they will come again, inevitably.
HOST: No, exactly. And as we said, we don't know when it's going to get any easier, right, for everyone in Australia.
SLOANE: We have 38 days of fuel capacity in this country. That is not good enough. The international standard is 90 days. New South Wales is one of the biggest states in the country. Needs a plan now.
HOST: Absolutely. And just finally now, before we let you go, the Liberal Party will today reveal the first elements of its hard-line immigration policy, despite it feels like we've been talking about this for months. Sam, in a move straight out of the Trump playbook, it seems they want to deport visa holders failing to comply with national values. Are they onto something here? Because immigration has grown in this country.
RAE: Sarah, there is absolutely a place for a sensible, respectful conversation about sustainable migration in our country. But let's be clear, that is not what's going on here. Angus Taylor is chasing around One Nation by their tail. This isn't about our national interests. This is about Angus Taylor's political interests. He's going to have to come clean with construction workers, with childcare workers, with aged care workers, people who work within my space, about which of those people he's going to yank visas from.
HOST: That's a good point. point. Kellie, do you support your federal counterparts on this?
SLOANE: Yeah, I do. And, you know, what a load of rubbish, Sam. It is a privilege, not a right, to live in this country. And if you share our values, stay. Australians overwhelmingly welcome migrants. We're a country built off the back of migrants. But if you don't share our values, you don't work hard, you don't contribute, then see you later.
HOST: But who's going to jump on their social media to check their core values, which is one of the proposals?
SLOANE: Why shouldn't we sign a value statement if you come to our country? This nation is full of people that contribute, love our country, and if you don't share those values, then you shouldn't be there, and I support Angus on that. But a fair but firm system is what we're asking for. Nothing more, nothing less. And I think he's on to something.
HOST: We'll hear more details today. Kellie, Sam, thank you both so much for joining me this morning. Appreciate it.