Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—

Introduction

The joint facilities we operate with the United States, such as the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, as well as the Australian facilities that host US strategic capabilities, are some of the most tangible manifestations of the strength and depth of the Australia-United States alliance.

However, due to the classified nature of some of the most sensitive work performed at these facilities, it is necessary that relatively few people are briefed on those roles and functions.

It is therefore in the public interest that governments make periodic public statements on these facilities.

Today, I want to update the parliament and the Australian public on the deliberate policy principles that govern these facilities and the contributions they make not only to regional and global security but to our own security and national prosperity.

The public can have confidence that its government is acting lawfully and responsibly in overseeing such activities and that Australia's continuing support for these activities is in our nation's best interests.

The Australia-United States a lliance — underpinning Australian security

The United States is our most important ally. Our military forces work side by side around the world to meet global security challenges and to promote peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

No other global power has values and interests more closely aligned with Australia's than the United States.

The presence of US military forces across the Indo-Pacific plays a vital role in ensuring regional security, and the strategic and economic weight of the US is essential to the continued effective functioning of the rules-based global order.

Australia's alliance with the US is enshrined in the ANZUS Treaty, signed on 1 September 1951.

With the support of successive Australian and US governments, the alliance has grown in depth and complexity over time, and it continues to deliver real benefits to both our countries.

The alliance gives us unparalleled access to the most advanced technology, equipment and intelligence, which is central to maintaining the potency of the Australian Defence Force.

Australia sources much of our most critical combat capability from the US.

Australia would be unable to develop the range of high-end capabilities we need without the alliance.

Crucially, the alliance also means that Australia benefits from the extended nuclear deterrence provided by the US.

During the Cold War, the US contributed to the security of its allies through its ability to respond with nuclear weapons if allies were attacked by the Soviet Union.

Today, global geopolitics have changed, but the core principles of extended nuclear deterrence have not.

Potential adversaries understand that an attack on Australia is an attack on the alliance.

This brings me to an important point.

Australia is not only a beneficiary of the US policy of extended nuclear deterrence, it is an active supporter of it, through our joint efforts with the US at Pine Gap and at other facilities, such as the Naval Communications Station Harold E. Holt, and the Joint Geological and Geophysical Research Station.

As the then-Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, noted in his public statement on Pine Gap in 1984, Australia should not claim the protection of nuclear deterrence without being willing to make a contribution to its effectiveness.

Hosting these joint facilities and US strategic capabilities on our soil is Australia's important contribution to the alliance, and I know it is supported in a bipartisan way by the Labor Party.

The Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap – over fifty years of success

The Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap has made—and continues to make—a critical contribution to the security of both Australia and the US.

It represents one of the finest examples of collaboration, innovation and integration, and has delivered remarkable intelligence dividends to both our nations.

As its name clearly states, Pine Gap is a 'joint' defence facility, run by the governments of both Australia and the US—as close and enduring partners.

Pine Gap's workforce is split approximately 50:50, between Australians and Americans, with Australians holding key decision-making positions at the facility and having direct involvement in operations and tasking.

Since its establishment in 1967, Pine Gap has evolved from its original Cold War mission, focused on early warning for Soviet ballistic missiles, to meet new demands and new challenges.

It has acquired cutting-edge, innovative technologies to do so.

Pine Gap has become a central element of our intelligence cooperation with the US and it continues to have relevance in delivering intelligence on a range of contemporary security priorities, such as terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and monitoring foreign weapons development.

Pine Gap also supports compliance monitoring with international arms control and disarmament agreements.

By hosting this capability, Australia supports the verification of adherence to arms control agreements, in keeping with the government's comprehensive policy approach to arms control and counter-proliferation.

It has provided monitoring and early warning capabilities of ballistic missile launches since 1999, following the closure of Joint Defence Facility Nurrungar.

Reliable, early and accurate warning of ballistic missile launches provides a crucial contribution to global stability, with Pine Gap helping to provide reassurance against the possibility of a surprise missile attack.

Much has been theorised about Pine Gap's role, for instance its contribution to US operations against terrorism.

While the Australian government, as a matter of longstanding practice, does not comment on intelligence matters, Australians can be assured that the government has full oversight of activities undertaken at Pine Gap and that these activities are undertaken in accordance with Australian and international law.

The significant value of Australian facilities supporting United States capabilities

While Pine Gap may be the highest profile joint facility on Australian soil, it is not the only facility in Australia that is jointly operated with the US, or that hosts US defence activities and capabilities.

The Joint Geological and Geophysical Research Station is another joint facility that Australia operates with the US in Alice Springs.

This facility, run by Geoscience Australia and the US Air Force, was established in 1955 to monitor nuclear explosions during the Cold War.

Today, it performs a crucial role as part of the International Monitoring System of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits 'any nuclear weapon test explosion' anywhere in the world. It is a little-known fact that this research station in Alice Springs detected and geo-located North Korea's sixth nuclear test, on 3 September 2017.

Like Pine Gap, the Naval Communication Station Harold E Holt, in Exmouth, Western Australia, has also contributed to Australia's national security for over half a century. This Australian facility, which was previously jointly operated with the US Navy until we assumed full control in the 1990s, provides communications for Australian and US submarines and ships. This includes communications for the submarine based nuclear deterrence capabilities of the US in the Indo-Pacific, which are crucial to credible deterrence, a stable nuclear balance and our own security.

Another important communications facility is the Australian Defence Satellite Communication Station in Geraldton, Western Australia, which hosts a ground station for US military satellite communications systems used by Australian and US forces on operations. This facility contributes to the safety of deployed Australian and US military personnel.

More than military and intelligence value

While much of the public debate seems to centre on the military applications of US capabilities in Australia or their contributions to intelligence matters, these capabilities also play a crucial role in our everyday lives. In 2017, a new space surveillance radar reached full operational capability at the Harold E Holt facility. This radar serves as a dedicated sensor node in the Global Space Surveillance Network, in support of our combined space operations cooperation with the US, United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. It will be joined by a new space surveillance telescope, which is scheduled to reach full operational capability in 2022.

Together, this radar and telescope will identify and track objects in space, which will help satellite owners avoid collisions with space junk and other satellites. With so many aspects of Australian life and business reliant on satellites, if one were to be severely damaged or knocked out of orbit that could have disastrous impacts on Australian individuals and businesses.

As another example, the Learmonth Solar Observatory, also in Western Australia, monitors solar emissions, which helps to protect communications equipment from solar interference. This space weather facility is jointly operated by the Bureau of Meteorology and the US Air Force. Solar weather can affect transmission quality for services, such as mobile phone and internet networks as well as television and radio transmissions. Solar weather can also affect power grids, causing blackouts. Predicting solar weather is important because it allows organisations that own infrastructure, such as satellites, communication networks or power grids, to mitigate its impacts. This is particularly relevant as more people use wireless internet devices as part of their daily lives, whether that be for entertainment, education, social media or business.

Our work with the US has also allowed us to share critical information. As a result, the intelligence we produce together has saved lives. It has saved American and Australian lives, not only on the battlefield, but it has saved civilian lives as well.

Protecting and enhancing our economic wellbeing

As outlined in the 2016 defence white paper, defending our maritime trade routes is part of Australia's primary strategic defence priorities. These maritime highways are the backbone of our foreign trade coming in and out of Australia. It is crucial for Australian jobs and our economy that these routes remain open and secure, with unimpeded freedom of access.

Regional actions have the ability to adversely impact regional security and economic stability. Facilities such as Pine Gap help reduce this risk, in support of the rules based global order, by providing early warning of potentially hostile activities and developments that threaten to destabilise the region.

It is also important to recognise the real economic and social benefits these facilities have in regional Australia. Apart from the jobs generated directly by these facilities, workers contribute to local economies and form part of the social fabric of these communities.

Full k nowledge and c oncurrence —protecting Australia' s sovereignty

While successive Australian governments have recognised the national security benefits that we gain from the joint facilities and by hosting US capabilities, they have also recognised that our national interests and sovereignty have to be honoured and protected. This has been achieved, as the shadow minister would know, by our policy of full knowledge and concurrence.

Full knowledge and concurrence is central to Australia hosting any foreign capability, be they from the US or any other country. It is an expression of Australia's sovereignty and a fundamental right to know what activities foreign governments conduct on our soil.

It is an expression of Australia's sovereignty and a fundamental right to know what activities foreign governments conduct on our soil.

'Full knowledge' equates to Australia having a full and detailed understanding of any capability or activity with a presence on Australian territory or making use of Australian assets.

'Concurrence' means that Australia approves the presence of a capability or function in Australia, in support of mutually-agreed goals.

It doesn't mean that Australia approves each and every activity or tasking undertaken; rather, it means that Australia agrees to the purpose of activities conducted in Australia and also understands the outcomes of those activities.

But I can assure the parliament and the Australian public, we maintain appropriate levels of oversight for the activities undertaken.

Importantly, concurrence also means that Australia can withdraw agreement if the government considers that necessary.

At a practical level, full knowledge and concurrence means:

First, that Australia is to be consulted about any new purpose proposed for any activity, or a significant change to an existing purpose, and we will be advised of any significant change to expected outcomes.

Second, it means that Australia will be briefed and advised on outcomes actually achieved.

And finally, proposals for new equipment or significant upgrades to existing equipment, including communications links, will be advised in sufficient time to confirm that the changes align with mutually-agreed purposes, or to seek further clarification, if required.

There is much work undertaken to ensure that the objectives of these practical steps are met.

The Department of Defence regularly reviews the management and implementation of this policy to ensure—and be fully satisfied—that governance is effective and being appropriately and stringently adhered to.

Australians who hold senior positions at these joint facilities, as well as at Australian facilities that are used by foreign governments, are fully and deeply integrated into decision-making and implementation processes.

While the details of the policy and its implementation have evolved over time, to better reflect the changes in our national security environment and to keep pace with technological progress, the fundamental principles of full knowledge and concurrence have not changed, and we are never complacent about its application.

Conclusion

It's in both nations' interests to have a secure and stable region, and the joint facilities and capabilities all play their role in ensuring regional security and stability is achieved.

But the alliance and regional stability cannot be taken for granted.

This government remains committed to growing and deepening all aspects of the relationship and working with the US to advance our mutual defence and security interests.

Our defence and intelligence cooperation will continue to evolve to meet ever-changing threats and challenges. As it must.

The spirit of innovation shared by our nations will continue to support the Australia-US Alliance and continue to be our strength, as the alliance evolves now and into the future.

As we adapt to meet new challenges to the rules based global order, our defence and intelligence cooperation and joint facilities will endure as our ever-vigilant eyes and ears in the world.

I thank the House. I present a copy of my statement.

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the minister has said, the nature of the functions performed at Pine Gap are such that they need to be done within the context of a great deal of security and confidentiality, and therefore the making of a statement by the minister about the operations of Pine Gap and the other joint facilities to this parliament and, through it, to the Australian people is a very important statement to make indeed, and we thank the minister for making it. It is a statement that has been made as a step in a series of statements that ministers over the years have made in relation to the joint facilities since they came into operation.

On this occasion, perhaps the most important point I can make in response is that, happily, Labor supports every word the minister has said today. We won't try to be in that habit too much, but we can say that today! But, in all seriousness, in a sense, there is a habit of doing that in relation to national security, defence and foreign affairs, where there is a great deal in common between the major parties. The significance of the United States alliance to Australia's world view, the joint facilities that are operated consistent with that alliance—Pine Gap being the most significant of them—and the policy of operating those facilities with full knowledge and concurrence have absolutely been bipartisan policy between the major parties since the joint facilities came into operation, and they are very much bipartisan policy of the major parties today.

At the heart of what underpins the joint facilities is our alliance with the United States. As the minister said, that formally began with the signing of the ANZUS Treaty back on 1 September 1951. But the relationship between Australia and the United States goes back much further than that. Last year, on 4 July, we celebrated what we coined 'the century of mateship': 100 years since the Battle of Hamel in the First World War, in which American and Australian troops fought together and General Sir John Monash, in that battle, commanded American troops for the first time. Since then, from the Western Front in France to Papua New Guinea, Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan—indeed, every conflict in which America has participated since then—Australia has been there side-by-side with the United States, and it has forged a very significant relationship which is at the heart of our foreign and strategic policy.

The relationship has its foundation in shared values. They are values that, domestically, are about democracy and the rule of law but, importantly, they are values that have sought to establish a global, rules based order. Those things that emerged out of the Second World War and the Bretton Woods institutions—things like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea—are all critical international norms which both Australia and the United States fundamentally believe in and try to make sure are asserted globally so that the world operates not on the basis of force but on the basis of reason.

We have a unique military relationship with the United States where we operate hand in hand with them not just in times of war but in times of peace and through exercises. Exercise Talisman Sabre, which occurs biennially and is occurring this year, is a significant exercise that the Australian Defence Force engages in—really the most significant exercise that the Australian Defence Force engages in—and is done hand in hand with the United States Armed Forces. We are embedded in a range of positions within the United States military. For example, the deputy commander of the United States Army in the Pacific is institutionally an Australian. Right now it is a position occupied by Major General Roger Noble. It's a position that has been occupied previously by the current Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Rick Burr. We need only to look at the marine rotation in Darwin to again see an example of the extent of cooperation between the United States and Australia. It's in that context that the joint facilities operate.

Australia and the United States established joint facilities at Pine Gap in the Northern Territory, Nurrungar in Woomera and North West Cape in Western Australia back in the 1960s. Nurrungar was commissioned in 1969 and then decommissioned 30 years later, in 1999. Pine Gap, which is the most prominent of the joint facilities, was commissioned back in 1967. It was in 1976 that we can perhaps first see it as a joint defence facility where the full policy of full knowledge and concurrence began to operate. As the minister articulated, that is full knowledge on the part of Australia as to what the function of Pine Gap is and what it does and full concurrence in the authorisation of those functions. In other words: what it does, it does with the permission of Australia and the United States together.

In 1984, as the minister alluded to, the then Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, in one of the first statements to the parliament about the operations of Pine Gap, pointed to its significance in maintaining a strategic balance between the then superpowers during the Cold War. But, as the minister pointed out, he also explained Australia's national interest in the operations of Pine Gap. He made the point that Australia enjoyed the protection of America's extended nuclear deterrence and that in enjoying that protection it was important that Australia played its part, and Pine Gap was a perfect example of that.

In 1988, when Prime Minister Bob Hawke again made a statement to this parliament about Pine Gap, he reiterated the extent to which Pine Gap not only served the United States' national interest but served Australia's. In 2007, the then Minister for Defence, Dr Brendan Nelson, again reinforced the contribution that was being made by Pine Gap to Australia's national interest and to the policy of full knowledge and concurrence. This, again, was affirmed by the then Minister for Defence, Stephen Smith, back in 2013. And it's in that line of statements that the minister has added his own today.

As the minister outlined, Pine Gap is involved in the collection of intelligence data on a range of security priorities, including terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, along with monitoring foreign weapons developments. It also provides ballistic missile early-warning information.

In my role, I have been fortunate enough to visit Pine Gap, which I did last year and to see firsthand what a remarkable institution it is. It's an institution which employs hundreds of people. The notion of it being joint can be felt the moment that you walk inside that place. There is a sense in which, actually, nationality between Australia and the United States seems to dissolve; it is just a group of people working on an endeavour. It's really clear—embodied, in fact, by the deputy manager of the operation, who is an Australian—that Australians occupy senior positions throughout the facility; Australians manage Americans and Americans manage Australians. Indeed, national identity inside that building doesn't seem to matter. It is a place where there is a unified aim in terms of the objective between both Australia and the United States. It is actually a wonderful thing to see. It is, obviously, a place where you see science at the cutting edge. This is a deeply high-tech facility which, in turn, in that sense, provides Australia with an enormous capability dividend.

I had dinner when I was there with our American host. It was clear in talking with our American host and those in Alice Springs that the American community who work at Pine Gap have been received by that town really well. And, indeed, the Americans seem to get into the spirit of life in the Centre and enjoy the time that they spend in Alice Springs.

As I said, obviously, there is a lot that we cannot say about what happens at Pine Gap. But it is clear that the sensitive nature of what goes on there and the high degree of cooperation which occurs between Australia and the United States in the performance of those functions almost define Pine Gap as being the centre of trust as it is expressed in our alliance with the United States. Pine Gap is one of the joint facilities. It is the most significant, but there are others, as the minister has noted. The Joint Geological and Geophysical Research Station, which was established in 1955 and which also operates in Alice Springs, is jointly run by the US Air Force and Geoscience Australia. As the minister indicated, it was originally established to monitor nuclear explosions during the Cold War, but it does now play a critical role in monitoring the international system in respect of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. The minister referred to the fact that it was there that the sixth North Korean detonation was first picked up.

The Naval Communication Station Harold E Holt, on the North West Cape of Western Australia, is also a joint facility. It was originally commissioned as a United States base back in 1967. It became a joint facility in 1974 under the Whitlam government and, indeed, an Australian facility in 1993 under the Hawke government. In July 2008, the then defence minister, Minister Fitzgibbon, and the then US defence secretary, Robert Gates, signed a treaty between Australia and the United States which provided for the United States to have access to the Australian facility over the next 25 years. It provides communications for both Australian and US submarines and ships. A new space surveillance radar operating from this facility has reached full operational capability as of 2017 and serves as a dedicated sensor node. There are other joint facilities that the minister has mentioned—the Learmonth Solar Observatory and the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station in Geraldton—which also play important roles and are operated jointly by agencies in the United States and Australia.

As I said, the joint facilities go to the heart of defining the trust that exists between Australia and the United States in the context of our alliance. That we are prepared to operate at the very core of our national interests just demonstrates exactly how close our relationship is. Kim Beazley, writing on the 50th anniversary of Pine Gap, referred to a phrase used by the late Des Ball, who said, in respect of the joint facilities, that they represent 'the strategic essence of the alliance', which is between Australia and America. That statement is absolutely true now. These are really important facilities in the context of the alliance. They're very important facilities in the context of Australia's national interests. They are run with full knowledge and concurrence, and they are run and supported on that basis in a completely bipartisan way between the major parties in this country.

Debate adjourned.