James Glenday, Host: We're joined from Canberra by the Foreign Minister, Penny Wong. Minister, welcome back to the show.
Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: Good to be with you.
Glenday: Do you mind if we start with the Iranian women's soccer team? We understand two more have sought asylum. Can you just confirm how many players in total have now sought asylum?
Foreign Minister: First, I want to say how moving this story has been. These images have been, for Australians, both confronting in terms of what happened with the young women going onto the bus, but also moving when we saw how the Matildas engaged with the Lionesses and the way in which Australians have taken this team into their hearts. As you know, we have offered the opportunity to speak privately with Australian officials to team members. We have had five who have taken up the offer of staying in Australia. Tony Burke is standing up shortly, or he may have stood up while I've been doing media, and I'll leave it to him to confirm if there have been any more who have taken up that offer. Obviously this is a very sensitive situation and there's been a lot of work done by Tony Burke and his officials to ensure that these offers could be made and could be taken up.
Glenday: You're probably going to defer to Tony Burke, but I just am curious, do you know if one of these women just refused to get on the plane at the last minute and were they accompanied by members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard?
Foreign Minister: What I can say is we ensured that team members were able to speak to Australian officials without others present.
Glenday: Okay, we'll get more, no doubt from your government a little later on that. We're getting a lot of reaction from around the world today about this development from the White House with the US Defence Secretary saying this is going to be the biggest day of Israeli and American bombing of Iran. The German Chancellor says he's worried there's no clear plan to bring the war in the Middle East to an end. Does the Government think that there is a plan somewhere there in the White House to bring this to a swift and convincing end?
Foreign Minister: I've been focusing on what Australia's position is, on what posture we have and the actions that we should take to advance the primary objective for Australia, which is to do all we can to keep Australians safe at home and abroad. And that informed the basis on which we supported action to prevent Iran continuing its nuclear program and continuing to be a threat to international peace and security.
Glenday: Have you been given any indication, sorry to interrupt, Minister, but if you've been given any indication by the United States about what success in this conflict looks like, because there are a lot of conflicting messages coming out?
Foreign Minister: Yes. And I'm the Australian Foreign Minister and I speak on behalf of Australia when it comes to foreign policy. The second point I'd make is that that thinking informed the deployment that we announced yesterday. We can speak to our objectives. In relation to what happens in this conflict ahead, it has intensified and has escalated. We hope there can be an off-ramp for dialogue and diplomacy. I would anticipate conflict will continue for some time before that can occur. And that reflects the discussions I've had with countries of the region, including of the Gulf states. One point I would make, though, about objectives, and this is where I was going to come to, I made very clear on the first day, and I continue to make this point, we do not believe that there is an historical example of regime change being able to be successfully and sustainably implemented externally. That's why we have said ultimately the future of Iran, its future governance is in the hands of the Iranian people.
Glenday: Just on the region. Obviously, we're going to have military assets in the UAE. Your government's been clear, you're saying that is to, in part, to protect Australians in that part of the world. The United States overnight says that it's drawing up plans to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and allow oil tankers to travel through it. Has Australia been asked to help with this?
Foreign Minister: You wouldn't expect me to broadcast requests, any requests that any one country may make to Australia and broadcast that through the media, including to our adversaries. But I would say this, we've considered a range of requests and the capability we have deployed is the one that we announced yesterday for the reasons we outlined, which includes the fact that Gulf countries are being attacked by Iran with drones and missiles, civilians attacked, civilian infrastructure attacked, and regions and areas and cities and towns where there are Australians. And that is why we are deploying this capability.
Glenday: So, could those military assets that have been deployed be used as part of a broader plan, a broader international plan to keep the Strait of Hormuz open for oil tankers?
Foreign Minister: The Australian Defence Force, including on this deployment, will respond to Australian direction and Australian policy. And if there is any change to policy, we would be transparent with the Australian people about that.
Glenday: Okay, sounds like there's more to come there.
Foreign Minister: No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm making an in-principle position that anything we do is something the Australian Government determines. And what we have determined is that we will deploy this capability, which is about defending against Iranian missiles and Iranian drones.
Glenday: Okay, thank you for being clear with that. Just before I let you go, obviously, we've seen huge fluctuations with the oil price. They seem to be going up and down depending on what the White House says about the Strait of Hormuz. What are you expecting an elevated price of oil to do to the Australian economy?
Foreign Minister: I think we all understand if the price of oil goes up, the global economy gets affected and we're not immune from that. In terms of what's happening in Australia, I'd make a few very quick points. One, we have as much fuel coming into this country as we had before the conflict. Secondly, there is no excuse for price gouging of consumers. Thirdly, we have seen very large changes in demand. We've seen jerrycans coming off the shelves at Bunnings. We've seen parts of my state with, you know, 100 or 200% increases in demand. Of course, that has meant there are supply problems in some regional areas. What have the industry asked us to say to Australians, when Ministers have met with the petroleum industry, the farmers' federation, the truckies, they have said, please get out the message that we don't want to see panic buying. So, that remains the Government's message. We have as much fuel coming into Australia as we had before the conflict and we have more fuel holdings than we have previously had.
Glenday: Foreign Minister Penny Wong, we always appreciate you joining our program.
Foreign Minister: Good to speak with you.