Press conference – Parliament House, Canberra
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much for joining us. Today the Government will introduce legislation to terminate the Russian Federation’s lease for a proposed diplomatic presence just next to Parliament House. We anticipate this legislation will pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate this morning. This action follows the conclusion of long-running litigation regarding the site. The Federal Court found that an eviction order made by the National Capital Authority was invalid, and this matter was concluded a couple of weeks ago on 31 May. The Government has received very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a new Russian presence so close to Parliament House. We are acting quickly to ensure the lease site does not become a formal diplomatic presence. The Government condemns Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine. To be clear, today’s decision is one taken in the national security interests of Australia, and I thank the Coalition and crossbenchers in the House and the Senate for their cooperation in this matter. I briefed, along with security agencies, briefed the Coalition leadership last night. They will be supporting this legislation, and I thank them for the expeditious passing of it. We briefed also crossbenchers in the House and the Senate earlier this morning, and I have also briefed the Chief Minister of the ACT, Andrew Barr, this morning about this action. It is important that it take place and it’s important that it take place this morning.
CLARE O’NEIL, MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: Thank you, PM. As the PM’s explained, today we will introduce a very simple law into the Parliament that we are asking is addressed urgently. The Bill is straightforward – it identifies a specific piece of land in Canberra which currently has a lease agreement between the National Capital Authority and the Russian Federation, and the Bill terminates that lease agreement. The principal problem with the proposed second Russian Embassy in Canberra is its location. This location sits directly adjacent to Parliament House. The Government has received clear national security advice that this would be a threat to our national security, and that is why the Government is acting decisively today to bring this longstanding matter to a close. I will address briefly the land itself. We will work through the options for this very important specific piece of land that, as I say, is literally directly next to the Parliament. We have made a decision this land will not be used for a future diplomatic presence, and we’ll come back to you when we have further information about the use of that land.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this has got symbolic importance, of course, in terms of a message to Russia, but at the moment, we’ve got talk about an offensive in Ukraine against Russian forces. There hasn’t been a new Australian contribution on the military front for Ukraine since late last year. Are you open to sending Hawkeis, Bushmasters, even aircraft to help Ukraine against Russia at the moment, since it’s been so long since the last Australian commitment?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s not right that there hasn’t been increased Australian contribution. When you make an announcement of Bushmasters, it doesn’t mean the 90 Bushmasters arrive the next day. They’re being built and transported to Ukraine. Australian soldiers are training Ukrainian soldiers in the United Kingdom. And there are a range of ways in which we are providing support. We are working consistently, along with the Department of Defence, to see what we can do to add further support to Ukraine. We understand that the struggle of the people of Ukraine is not just about Ukrainian national sovereignty, as important as that is. This a struggle about the sovereignty of international law, about whether national borders are sovereign, about whether the rule of law will apply. So we stand very strongly with the people of Ukraine, but we are continuing to make contributions and continuing to provide support which is occurring every day, every week and every month.
JOURNALIST: PM, you said you were going to bring transparency and integrity back into Government. Shouldn’t there be more details around the compensation payout to Brittany Higgins and why do you continue to say your Senators did not –
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we’re dealing with this issue today. It’s actually a serious issue.
JOURNALIST: PM, there’s going to be another ding-dong at state conference in Victoria this week over AUKUS. Does it worry you that the rank-and-file is continuing to agitate against your embrace of that pact? You’ve had Queensland branch reject it, the Victorian branch is going to debating it, it’s going to come up at national conference.
PRIME MINISTER: Well the Labor Party is a democratic party. And it’s one in which people engage in debates. And what we do is we broadcast them live. We’ll continue to do that. There are people who have different views in the Labor Party. They’re entitled to put them forward. But the view of my Government is very, very clear, and is unwavering in its support for AUKUS, in its support for issues about our national security and about our interests in the defence of this nation. AUKUS is an important part of that and our Government is unwavering in that.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, while you’re blocking Russia building a new embassy, it still has a diplomatic presence here in Griffith. Can you explain to people why you’re stopping them building a new embassy, but you’re allowing them to maintain a diplomatic presence? You’re not expelling any of their representatives?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Russia does have a diplomatic presence here and that will continue at its existing premises in Griffith. Just as Australia has a diplomatic presence in Moscow. This is not about changing that, this is about the specific risk presented by this site, and that is why we are taking this action.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how concerned are you about the trajectory of the Voice debate and the opinion polling –
PRIME MINISTER: Can we just ask questions about this, if that’s okay? I do lots of press conferences about broad things but.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you had any security advice relating to the proximity of the Chinese Embassy to Parliament House?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we’re dealing with this very specifically and it’s based upon very specific advice as well about the nature of the construction that’s proposed for this site, about the location of this site, and about the capability that that would present in terms of potential interference with activity that occurs in this Parliament House. That is why we are taking this action. We’re doing it very quickly. Once the decision was made on 31 May, I convened a National Security Committee meeting. We took advice as to the best way in which we could extinguish this lease. This legislation, this morning, is based upon the very clear advice that we received. We’re introducing it as soon as we can, and we’re also passing it as soon as we can as well. Our advice is that this will basically extinguish, when you see the legislation that Clare will introduce in a matter of minutes now, you’ll see it extinguishes various Australian law so that it won’t apply. But it also, of course, is up to the Russian Government, we will await what response occurs, but we have anticipated that as well. We don’t expect that Russia’s in a position to talk about international law, given their rejection of it so consistently and so brazenly with their invasion of Ukraine and the atrocities that have occurred, that are occurring on an ongoing basis. Thanks very much.