PENNY WONG, FOREIGN MINISTER: Good morning, everyone. It was really good to see the flight from the UAE land in Sydney last night, and I'm so glad that we saw Australians coming home safely. And those scenes were very moving, but there is so much more to do. We have thousands of Australians in the UAE and in the region more broadly. We'll continue to do everything we can. Our first priority is to ensure that Australians are safe and secure, this is a conflict zone. I can say that we have three flights that are currently scheduled today for departure for Australia from the UAE. Obviously, those are subject to confirmation that it is safe and secure to leave. Changes could happen until the last moment, but I hope that those flights are also able to depart safely. More broadly, the Government is very concerned that the conflict is spreading. What we saw overnight is Iran engaging in a strike on Türkiye. Türkiye is a NATO member. This now makes it 11 countries Iran has sought to strike since this conflict began. So we are deeply concerned about this conflict spreading. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Those DFAT teams that have left for the Middle East, what will they actually be doing on the ground?
FOREIGN MINISTER: They will be working to assist Australians on the ground, both in terms of their safety on the ground, but also to leave. Obviously, we do have personnel in the region already. We have posts, we have very good people, and I thank them all for their work, but with the numbers of people who need assistance, we need to deploy more personnel, and that's what we’re doing.
JOURNALIST: Are you worried this is becoming a much broader conflict?
FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes, we are. Of course we are. I think the world is worried. As I said, there's 11 countries now that Iran has sought to strike. I don't think people, we anticipated, or any country might have anticipated, that Iran would respond in the way that it has. It has, within the first 72 hours, struck many non-participant countries. It engaged in strikes on airport hubs. So this conflict has spread very rapidly, and the conflict is much more intense.
JOURNALIST: Do you support the action by the United States and Israel?
FOREIGN MINISTER: We support the action to remove a nuclear threat from Iran and to prevent Iran from continuing to project outside its borders to engage in terrorism, which we have seen in Australia.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, do you still support the way they went about it?
FOREIGN MINISTER: The legal basis of this war, as I have said multiple times, is a matter for Israel and the United States.
JOURNALIST: Has Australia been asked to be involved in any way, deploy any assets, Australia's military intelligence, Pine Gap use?
FOREIGN MINISTER: We don't comment on that facility. On the strikes, we made clear that we did not participate in the strikes.
JOURNALIST: You said, you’ve got about 24,000 people in the UAE alone. If you still rely on commercial flights, how long could some of those people potentially be stranded?
FOREIGN MINISTER: Not everybody who is in the UAE will be wanting to leave. Obviously, there are people who reside there, who are living there. At this stage, so we have that cohort, and then we have a cohort of people who were travelling off and on to other destinations, who have not been able to engage in forward travel. So I think what we would see is most many of those people will be the first ones seeking to leave.
JOURNALIST: What role is the Defence Force playing currently in bringing Australians home?
FOREIGN MINISTER: I'm not able to comment on some of our contingency plans. What I can say is, we are looking at all contingencies. But I would also emphasise this, and we have this experience, unfortunately, because we've seen a number of crises in the Middle East, when you have this number of people, when you have people where you need to move at scale, and 24,000 or 115,000 throughout the region is at scale, the fastest way is to use commercial flights when they become available.
JOURNALIST: Minister, are you saying that the removal of Iran's potential nuclear threat was necessary at any cost?
FOREIGN MINISTER: No, I'm saying that the legal basis for the war is a matter for Israel and for the United States, and I'm saying as a matter of our national interest, as a country that has been subject to the terrorist activities of Iran outside of its borders, and as a country that has an interest in the nuclear non-proliferation regime being maintained, that our support was on that basis. What I'm also saying is the legal basis of it is a matter for the United States and Israel.
JOURNALIST: Do you have a sense of the breakdown of the numbers now?
FOREIGN MINISTER: I'm not able to give you exact numbers on that. We have had a lot of registrations, and that is a good thing. We encourage people to register. We are working through that registration process to determine eligibility and also people's relative needs.
JOURNALIST: And just on the alert, the opposition is accusing the government of having double standards when it comes to alerting diplomats and their families.
FOREIGN MINISTER: It’s so disappointing when people are so stressed, that the Opposition, instead of backing in what needs to be done, chooses to play politics and to say things which are just untrue. We have a no double standards policy. That means that when people are directed to leave, that is made public and it was – end of story. Thanks. Thank you.