Doorstop Interview - Lavarack Barracks, Townsville

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
LAVARACK BARRACKS, TOWNSVILLE
TUESDAY, JULY 15 2025

SUBJECTS: Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025; Defence space capabilities; Victory in the Pacific commemorations; China; regional Australia’s contribution to Defence; Defence spending.

MATT KEOGH, MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL:  Well, look, it's wonderful to be here in Townsville for exercise Talisman Sabre 2025. Talisman Sabre is our biggest exercise happening every couple of years, and this year is the biggest we've ever had. Over 30,000 personnel. Nineteen countries engaged. It's an incredibly important way for our Australian Defence Force to demonstrate its wares and its capacity and capability in a range of different domains, and to be able to do that with principally the United States, but with all those other countries from the region and around the globe as well. Being able to show and build on that interoperability that we need with partner countries and being able to see how others operate so that we are best able to create that effect and capability of our force when that is needed and required.

And here today, whilst there's many domains on display as part of Talisman Sabre, yesterday there was live fires, there'll be beach landings and everything else, but here today I've been checking out here in Townsville our space operations. Space is an incredibly important domain. We often think about, when we are talking about defence, our land, air and sea. But cyber and space, those other two domains that sometimes are overlooked, are as important. And so it's been great to be able to meet with the Australian component, but also those other countries that are participating here as part of the JCO operating from Townsville to participate in Talisman Sabre. Here we're integrating Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, Japanese, South Korean, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines into an operation that's looking at all sorts of different data that we're able to obtain through the space domain to be able to inform our defence force about the environment that it is operating in.

Sometimes it's as basic as the weather, but the weather is not basic and incredibly important to what we do in any of our operations. But it goes well beyond that as well. That's incredibly important for an exercise like Talisman Sabre, of course, where they're not just supplying that important information into the exercise but also providing product that helps move the scenario of the exercise along as well, in a real world fashion, as our defence force members would expect to be receiving it through their ordinary operation as well. So it's great to see all those countries cooperating. It's great to see the expansion of this important domain.

We saw through the National Defence Strategy that came out of our Defence Strategic Review the importance of making that additional investment and engagement into the space domain, making sure that we build that capability and workforce. Because it is our Defence people that are our most important capability across every domain. And that means, as part of how we grow that, we are soon going to be offering direct recruitment opportunities into space domain roles as well. It'll mean that we'll be moving from a situation where, at the moment, we've got people coming from Army, Navy, Air Force into space operations.

There will become direct recruitment roles coming from Air Force, where people will be able to join the Defence Force to become a space operator, whether it's around satellite operations, whether it's around intelligence and reconnaissance, using our space domain. A whole range of different roles we'll be opening up for direct recruitment. And that's a game changer, because it means we're able to grow that specific, dedicated space operations workforce, which is what we've set out in the workforce plan that we released last year. But it also is an enabler for those, you know, kids might be sitting in high school, maybe those that are older and opting for different careers already, actually excited by space. Because I think so many people are, and think, oh, there's actually a pathway for me in the Defence Force to become more engaged in Australia's capacity and Australia's operations in space.

And we've got to see some of that here today. And that's a great thing to be seeing here in Townsville as part of its engagement with Talisman Sabre. Of course Townsville itself, it is Australia's principal garrison city. There's more people here connected to the Defence Force than in any other part of Australia. And that's not a new thing, that's not a recent thing. That's something that we have seen over many, many years.

In fact, when we think about it, it goes back with a history of over 80 years. Townsville was an incredibly important part of Australia's participation in the War in the Pacific in the Second World War. And the Australian Government very much recognises that. And that's why I'm very pleased to be able to announce today that the Australian Government will be contributing $150,000 towards the City of Townsville’s commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the end of the War in the Pacific.

During that war, Townsville was bombed three times. Not only did it host so many Australian personnel, but was a key centre for hosting American personnel as well as part of that war effort. The City of Townsville is holding three days of commemorations, starting on Friday the 15th of August, with commemoration ceremonies, engagements with Defence, giving those veterans that are still around an opportunity to be recognised for the work and effort that they performed in the service of our country and defending our nation during the Second World War. And the Australian Government's very happy to be able to make that contribution. I want to recognise Cr Andrew, who's here today as well. I've spoken with the Acting Mayor about this. It is an incredibly important way to make sure that we commemorate that service in the Second World War and commemorate the important role that Townsville played.

Of course, there'll be many commemorations happening around Australia on the 15th of August. And the Australian Government's very happy to be supporting a number of those occurring. But here, you'll see some great engagement. Not only the commemorations being operated by the City of Townsville, but the Defence Force is going to be engaging strongly with those commemorative activities. And I really want to thank the work that the Defence Force is doing.

I'm very happy to be able to reveal that there will be a flyover. Two Super Hornets will be participating in the commemorative service on the Saturday, the 16th of August as well. Which I think for everyone who's coming along and participating will get a bit of a buzz out of that. It’s a great demonstration of the important role that Townsville played then, and plays all the way through to today, in the defence of our country. And so that's really what we see here and we will see in August.

We've got July, going through the beginning of August with Talisman Sabre. The biggest exercise that we perform as an Australian Defence Force. Engaged with 19 countries being engaged. And then following up, just over a week later, with those Victory in the Pacific 80th celebrations here with the city of Townsville and the Australian Government very happy to support that as well.

JOURNALIST: When did you give the Acting Mayor the good news?

KEOGH: I was able to give her the good news yesterday. I had to wait for her to come out of a live fire demonstration as part of Talisman Sabre that she was watching. And she's on her way back from there now. And it's a great example, actually, of how the city here very much understands the important role that it plays with our Australian Defence Force and being engaged with exercises like exercise Talisman Sabre, as well as a number of others that have run out of Townsville, supported from Townsville. And she was very happy that the Australian Government was providing that funding.

JOURNALIST: Council's been planning this for a while. There's certainly a lot of anticipation about it. So why is it that we’re just hearing about the federal funding (indistinct) out now?

KEOGH: So we run a grants program that supports these sorts of commemorative activities. That opened up just before the election. We then had the election and the caretaker period that went on. And then we were able to undertake assessments following that process. So as part of that process of making sure we undertake a proper assessment of those applications, and we're very happy to support the City of Townsville’s application, but we had to get through those processes properly first.

JOURNALIST: Obviously, 19 countries here. A lot of eyes around the world are on this training exercise. Do you have any comments about the speculation regarding Chinese spies paying close attention to Talisman Sabre this year?

KEOGH: It’s Talisman Sabre, we expect the Chinese to show up. I think that's what happens. It's actually, I sometimes think of them as the 20th country to participate. They show up every year to test their equipment offshore. And so we wouldn't be surprised if they show up again. What that is actually a demonstration of, really, at the end of the day, is how significant this exercise is, not only for Australia, but for all the countries that are partnered in this exercise as well. We've seen it happen year after year when the exercise is on. So you know that is factored into the plan.

JOURNALIST: How does our Defence Force space capability compare to other nations from what you understand?

KEOGH: So the great thing about the way we're operating with this exercise, actually how we've been operating for a number of years now, is that we partner not only with our five other nations, but with a number of other countries around the globe. And that means that we're able to have a 24-hour operation. And it means that we're able to utilise the benefit and the expertise and share that and grow our own expertise and capability as well.  And so what you'll see with that is that we’ve had people from our space operations embedded in the United States, in Japan, with other countries as well. And they come and embed with us at certain times, as well as having exercises like Talisman Sabre.

And so our capability is great. As I said, the space domain is one of those that is overlooked often in the public's thinking about our Defence Force. But it is actually an important capability. One that we've operated for a long time. What we've done more recently, and that the Defence Strategic Review and the National Defence Strategy really highlights, is the way that we needed to have brought that together to make sure that we're using the space domain as a domain across every armed service and as a part of our integrated principle.

JOURNALIST: As you said, minister, the largest Talisman Sabre yet to date, obviously. What does that mean to have it playing out across Australia and large parts of regional Australia as well? Townsville, we've got Airlie Beach to the North, Central Queensland, and other parts of the country as well?

KEOGH: I think what it demonstrates is the involvement of not just Northern Queensland, but across the Northern Territory, Western Australia, as well as being part of exercise Talisman Sabre, is the important opportunity that the exercise provides not just to the Australian Defence Force, but to the defence forces of the other countries that participate. The reality is, we've got lots of space that allows us to conduct this sort of exercise. And it means that it's unique in its capacity to be able to provide the opportunity to exercise certain capabilities that it's pretty hard to do in any other part of the world.

And that's why not only the United States, but those other countries want to be able to participate and engage in it. We know that our geography is incredibly unique, and we know it is provides us with a strategic advantage. One of those strategic advantages is the opportunity to conduct exercises over a massive land, water and space area, and that's what we're seeing demonstrated today. And it also highlights the importance of our northern focus of our Defence Force. Being able to utilise not just great garrison towns like Townsville, but also being able to operate from Darwin, another great garrison city of Australia, as well as those other bases that are across the north of Australia. Bringing them to life as part of the exercise, being able to do that on a regular basis so that we have those bases up and running and being able to utilise them is incredibly important.

JOURNALIST: And Minister, Prime Minister has been asked this a lot recently, but are there potential plans to increase spending on defence across the country?

KEOGH: Well, what our plans have already shown is that we have made a significant increase in investment to Defence since we came to government. And that shows that over the decade we are increasing spending by over $50 billion to what was the trajectory before we came to government. That is a significant increase. And what's most important, we're seeing that in the areas that really matter. So it's not just in the expenditures related to Aukus. It's also about guided weapons. It's about making sure that the Army, the Navy and Air Force, space, cyber, are configured to deliver the integrated force that we need in the geostrategic circumstances that we confront now. That's very different to what we had before we came into government. Lots of announcements, the funding wasn't there and it wasn't being focused in the places that we needed it to be done strategically. We're now in a position where we're going to be manufacturing that sort of weaponry here in Australia. We're developing the Submarine Force. We're developing our space capabilities like I'm having a look at today.

END

Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counselling provides 24/7 free confidential crisis support for current and ex-serving ADF personnel and their families on 1800 011 046 or the Open Arms website. Safe Zone Support provides anonymous counselling on 1800 142 072. Defence All-Hours Support Line provides support for ADF personnel on 1800 628 036 or the Defence Health Portal. Defence Member and Family Helpline provides support for Defence families on 1800 624 608