GREENE: Peter Jennings thank you very much for your time. Firstly to the developments
in the South China Sea, are you surprised to learn that an Australian warship is there
with US warships at the moment conducting military drills?
JENNINGS: No, I knew in early February when the Parramatta left, she is on a four month
deployment, calling in many of the ASEAN capitals, of course, what wasn't expected at the time
the ship left that we would have a tense situation emerging in the South China Sea and further
north with China really putting on major military display that I think is all about trying to
intimidate its neighbours as we come of the coronavirus crisis.
GREENE: If we talk about the coronavirus crisis, what has China been doing in the South China
Sea during the past few months?
JENNINGS: There is a couple of things that are worth pointing out. One is that I think
China must have isolated it's elite military units so they could put to sea with confidence
that the crew was not infected. And what they have been doing in the South China Sea specifically
is exercising with their aircraft carrier, the first aircraft carrier being doing landing
and midair fuel refuelling and they have been posturing towards the Philippines and Vietnam
and declaring two new governing units across some of the claimed territories. This is another
step up of aggressive Communist Party behaviour in terms of military muscle flexing and claims
of political control over that part of the world.
GREENE: Do you think it has caught the United States off guard as its own ships are crippled
by coronavirus?
JENNINGS: Think China by its design had six weeks or more of early preparation time to
put their military into a better position than the United States or indeed, us and that
has given China a small tactical advantage, but we do have a number of American warships
operating in the South China Sea and in the east China Sea to the north. So, America is
by no means away from the scene and what we have then is a sort of a ramping up of what
has already been for some years a fairly heated competition between naval and air forces of
the two countries in this area.
GREENE: If we can stay on the South China Sea, it is of course, a crucial trading route
for oil supplies. Today, the Australian government has announced almost $100 million will go
to creating a national stockpile. Is that enough for Australia?
JENNINGS: I think it is a very welcome first step after years of successive Australian
governments saying there was no problem and just in time delivery from overseas was fine.
Now, we have, I think, an acknowledgement from the government that there is a need to
do more and so I'm very pleased that some money has been invested into the purchasing
of fuel, but there will be significant additional expenditures as well.
GREENE: We don't currently have the capacity to store it. So it will be stored in the United
States. Do you think that we need to look at that?
JENNINGS: Yes, of course, this is the problem. What we have in terms of fuel funds, full
storage facilities have eroded literally over the years to the point that our on shore shortage
capacity is only suited to the just in time constant delivery from overseas. It is great
to have bought this fuel, but if it is stored in the United States, we still have the problem
of how do we get it to the Australian mainland if we find we're in a period of, you know,
significant conflict or trouble? And so, yes, it is obviously that we have to have these
fuel farms constructed here in Australia and that is going to cost hundreds of millions
of dollars to do that to give us any meaningful on shore storage capacity.
GREENE: Peter Jennings, thank you for your time.
JENNINGS: T hank Andrew.