Secretary, CDF, look thank you very much for
joining us today. Due to global events we obviously had to change the format a
little bit of the Air Power Conference to a virtual conference. We really do
appreciate your time today. It's a timely discussion as well, and it coincides with
the development of the Air Force Strategy. Which will be released mid-year.
And that seeks to recalibrate Air Force thinking, so that air and space power is
part of the joint force, as a tool of national power. It's actually constantly
operating, not just in outright conflict scenarios, but all the time for national
influence. And having you here today to provide this insight for us is really
important as a marker for Air Force, as we seek, through our strategy, to develop
military and air power strategists, so thank you very much. I'd just like
to start I guess to explore. 2020 has been a challenging year so far. Without
going into the specific scenarios we have faced, and are facing, at a more
broader level I'd really be interested in your opinion just on the machinery of
Government at its broadest level and how Defence interfaces with that, coalesces
policy and military advice to form a coherent response for government.
Secretary perhaps if you could start us off with that question that'd be
appreciated.
Well thank you and it's great to have the opportunity to
contribute to the conference in a different way than what we were
anticipating a couple of weeks ago. But I do want to acknowledge the contribution
of the Air Force to the whole-of- government effort and to the ADF's
broader contribution to Operation Bushfire Assist. And I think that that
example is a very good one of the way in which Defence is going to
continue to contribute, even in a more integrated way to whole-of-government
efforts in the future. Defence has always made a strong contribution with aid to
the civil power, with humanitarian and disaster
response activities, in our region and beyond. But I think the nature of the
challenges are going to require an even more integrated and closely aligned
involvement of Defence with other arms of national power. And in Operation Bushfire
Assist, Defence was able to plug in very seamlessly to a whole of nation effort
that was led by EMA. We were able to contribute to the National Cabinet
decision making process, supporting our Ministers in that effort. And not
just at the end of the crisis, but right from the beginning where the CDF
and the Minister spoke about possible call-out.
Defence was able to contribute to planning, and and then to execution, and
then to a recovery. And we are still involved in the ongoing discussions with
Andrew Colvin who's leading the recovery task force. So Defence's engagement all
the way along that spectrum I think will only increase in the future, and again
Royal Australian Air Force made a magnificent contribution to that effort
under the leadership of the CDF, and the whole of Defence effort.
Thank you Secretary. CDF I was wondering if maybe you could also comment. Is it
the machinery of government, is it the process itself or is it also the
relationships that we form within the process?
Thanks Phil. It's both. People
matter. And you can't deny the value of relationships. And of working together,
having experience that you share in previous work, coming together as a norm
of senior level engagement. Building trust, confidence and a sense of
understanding of broadly each other's capacities and how we can knit together.
The process helps to discipline the effort. But the relationships are utterly vital,
and I encourage everyone to build relationships across the community that
we call the National Security Community.
Thank you Sir.
Just on that relationship theme a little bit more broadly as well. The Air Force
Strategy values the proposition of international engagement and
relationships in the Indo-Pacific which after all is 52 per cent of the Earth's
surface. A very large and diverse region. How do you see Defence's contribution to the
broader government objectives through our international engagement policies,
and how would Air Force contribute to that as well?
Phil thank you. I think that
Air Force, and broader Defence we have a key role I think, in terms of shaping
the environment. It's not just not just generating and delivering a military
capability effect, but in terms of the way in which our engagement, our presence
in the region, our defence cooperation activities, the joint exercises that we
do, the conferences, the people-to-people links that we build, they contribute to
an Australian whole-of-government effort to shape the region in ways that support
our interests and our values. So Air Force has an important role to play, in
terms of the Air Force engagement piece as part of our international engagement
plan. But also supporting other Government initiatives. I know Air Force
has been involved in supporting the Pacific Islands Forum for example. A
great way in which the capabilities of our platforms and our people can create
a positive impression of Australia, with regional leaders. So there is a really
important role for Air Force to play as part of that Defence
contribution to a whole-of-government effort to shape the region. And then of
course, there are important roles for Air Force to play in terms of the
deterrent effect that Australia wishes to be able to deter threats in our
region and also we need to be able to operate in our region. We need to be
familiar we need to have those relationships in the event that we are
required to conduct operations and the ADF is required to, in the event of hostilities,
if the ADF is deployed by Government to conduct operations we need
to know how to effectively work in our region. So there's a whole range of ways
in which Air Force can contribute to that broader Defence and whole-of-
government effort in the region.
Now thank you secretary. And CDF, air power
seems to have a unique role to play in our near neighbourhood particularly the
Pacific, with our neighbours. They don't necessarily have large air forces. They
don't have the necessarily the funds to invest in large air forces. We certainly
have seen that through the Pacific Island Forum and in other other
mechanisms. I'd be really interested in your insight into how Air Force
contributes in the Pacific, and how we might even do that better as we move forward.
Sure. If I look at our Defence White Paper. And I try to summarise that
in two words as I've spoken to our Senior Leadership Group. To me it's
engage and prepare. It spans soft to hard power. And the Air Force does
exactly that. And the Air Force does that very professionally every day. In the
Pacific we've seen in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief
operations, air power coming to the fore. In making a bridge, in connecting, in
supplying and supporting, in informing, surveying and engaging. And
that kind of work is invaluable to repair, rebuild, assist in the
stabilisation of communities that have been so affected. Whether it be cyclones,
tsunamis, all sorts of disaster events. This is the kind of work that builds a
community. And builds a sense of identity through shared knowledge, shared
awareness and shared commitment to that region. The Pacific Island's community is
one such community. Where a partner with others in that region, and by working
together. And I like to think of it as building that sense of an air community
from an Air Force point of view. That helps to strengthen the region, thinking
of itself as a region, working together as a region, this is to the benefit of
everybody. And Air Force has as a critical connector, a really fundamental role to
play in that story.
Thank you Sir. That's a great insight. Thank you very much.
And I went to the 10th anniversary of the National Security
College recently. Great event. Professor Genevieve Bell was there and I
thought she gave a really apt insight. She said that 2035 is not opaque.
It's just that elements of it are already starting to disclose themselves,
the trick is to actually identify which elements are markers for the future
which may not be. I'd be really interested maybe with you first
Secretary your insights into the Indo-Pacific and what you see as
potential markers that might determine the region's future?
Well I think there
will be a couple. I think Ministers and the Prime Minister have said, that in
some ways the region is anxious. And I do see rising levels of strategic anxiety
around great power competition, around military modernisation in our region,
around some of the still simmering and unresolved internal
challenges that countries of the Indo-Pacific face. So I think that the
the next couple of decades will be more challenging strategic circumstances for
Australia. And Defence obviously needs to be thoughtful about what that means for
the Australian Defence Force, for its capabilities, for its readiness, for the
type of a strategic posture that we adopt. But I also see great opportunities
for Australia to build and consolidate relationships with a number of key
countries in the region. The CDF talked about the South Pacific Islands Forum
and that is a really important area for Australia we wish to remain the
strategic partner of choice for the countries of the South Pacific
region. In Southeast Asia the ASEAN region is a really important area for
continue to develop our defence relationships, our defence engagement, our
defence diplomacy. So Southeast Asia, the South Pacific but also relationships
like India, Japan where our defence cooperation has really deepened the ADF's
cooperation with those countries is very significantly increased just in the
last couple of years. So there are anxieties of course great power
competition between the United States and China is a very significant
contributor to those anxieties and we do need to work with both China and with
our ally the United States to contribute to regional security. But
there are also many areas where the ADF relationships, Air Force
relationships and broader defence relationships can build and thicken up
regional networks to help continue to promote a secure and prosperous region for us.
Thank you Secretary. And with risks always come opportunities so I
guess that's why we need air power strategist and military strategists to
identify where those opportunities sit sir. So just one final question and I
guess the Air Force strategy seeks to generate a level of coherence
I guess singularity with the strategic centre and defence, so it's the Air
Force's response to various strategic artefacts, military strategies etc. How do
we, how does that, how is it achieved I guess when a whole-of-government response
is required in the Indo-Pacific? How do you how do we achieve that strategic
coherence, that singularity across government.
There's a lot of work
involved. Whole-of-government, coordinated government, fusion as the UK would
describe it. It's not easy, and often it's not natural. Not natural in that people
are usually comfortable inside their organisations, they need to learn to be
comfortable across organisations. And to build that sense of community, of value
by connecting a group of organisations together.
That's domestically for Australia at the Federal level, the Commonwealth level. But
also increasingly at the Commonwealth and the State and Territory level. It's
also connecting, from the Commonwealth level out to partners in the region. Some
of them long-standing historic allies of great trust, confidence and
interoperability. Others, partners of the moment for a particular issue and
circumstance. But unless we're open to doing that you, never get the true power
and effect that you need to aspire to generate to solve complex, cross-domain
problems that may be long-standing and may be wicked problems in our region. So
that's the challenge. I think that whole- of-government work, is work to be worked
at. You don't assume it. You don't say it was good last time so it'll be good next
time. You keep at it and you build relationships, you build trust, you build
knowledge and confidence and you put a hand out to
others offering what you can do to help them, and they do the same to you. You
build that web of connections.
Sir thank you very much. CDF, Secretary we
really do value your time and it's been a unique format, having a virtual forum
for the Air Power Conference. But we will bring all this together, and we will get
this out to all our members, which will be very insightful for them as we seek
to develop air power and military strategists. Because this is about how
Air Force actually contributes to the Joint Force which is what we're here to do.
That's what we exist for. To contribute to the Joint Force but to
achieve national influence and effects for Government at the end of the day. So
your insights have been invaluable and we do appreciate it so thank you very much.
Thanks for the opportunity to contribute.