Media Room: Defence Speech

RUPERT McCALL: I first met this man on an afternoon at the Victoria Barracks here in Brisbane. I followed up and I was very impressed with him, as are a lot of Australians. These are challenging times, Peter Cosgrove, aren’t they?

PETER COSGROVE: Rupert, nice to talk to you again, and Dean. Yes, they are very challenging times but times when I’m proud to say every Aussie that I’ve seen is standing up really tall to do what they can for people in distress.

McCALL: We’re joined on the line by the Chief of the Defence Force, General Peter Cosgrove. Peter, in general terms, how do – we just spoke to Clinton Maynard. How do our Australian soldiers approach this situation of civil unrest in Aceh?

COSGROVE: Look, I think the fortunate thing at the moment is that the civil unrest aspect has been put to one side. At least we trust that’s the case and we very much seek to produce humanitarian assistance to people no matter what have been the problems of the past. And in that, you know, we’re working very closely with the Indonesians and the men and women of other countries so we’re sort of setting it aside and trusting that commonsense will mean that everybody will pull together on this one.

DEAN MILLER: I guess we’re going to be in Aceh for some time, given that we’re sort of asking now for engineers and the long term rebuild of Aceh is going to take a considerable period of time and we know that this package of one billion dollars that the Prime Minister has offered up overnight to the Indonesian Prime Minister will be spent over the course of 10 years. Does that mean a long involvement for the ADF in Sumatra?

COSGROVE: It’s hard to say but certainly we’re ready to assist further if we are needed. I mean, after the immediate emergency, on the rebuild, that’s a matter for the Indonesian government in terms of whether or not they want the ADF to be in there with, say, engineers or people of that ilk but if our government wants us to do and the Indonesians are keen, well, we’ll be ready to help.

MILLER: Can you tell us how many people we’ve got from the ADF on the ground up there at the moment and perhaps tell us about some of the military infrastructure and hardware that we have working in the region at the moment?

COSGROVE: Sure, look, it’s a moving feast but today we’d have about 400 or so and that will rise to about between 900 and 1000 within a few days when the HMAS Kanimbla arrives in the theatre with engineers from Darwin. So that’s moving around but the centrepiece of our effort in Sumatra will be RAAF aircraft, army helicopters and medics of the three services.

Now, that will expand to include engineers when they arrive, as I say, in a few days but at the moment we’re moving a lot of stuff all over Sumatra and from places further afield. We’re carrying people, particularly injured people, out of Banda Aceh and we’re looking after those same people in a couple of hospitals that we’ve set up and are helping to run in Banda Aceh.

McCALL: General Cosgrove, 140 soldiers from Townsville barracks were dispersed in the last 24 hours on HMAS Kanimbla. I know it’s been compared to a war zone, this massive tragedy, but are our soldiers trained for the enormity of such a task?

COSGROVE: Sadly, we’ve had a little bit of experience over the last few yeas. Many of your listeners will recall 1998 when a similar tidal wave hit the northern coast of New Guinea. Now, while the loss of life there was tragic and huge by regional standards then, it sadly gave us a little bit of experience of what you need to do. So those lessons sort of percolate throughout the force and our people are used to pitching in on humanitarian assistance operations when strong backs and a little bit of initiative are at a premium.

MILLER: I just want to get back to Sumatra, if I can for a moment. So you say that if the Indonesian Prime Minister or the Indonesian government ask for some ADF assistance in perhaps in controlling things or policing things up there, we’d be happy to go in there and do that. Do you think that we would be- -

COSGROVE: Hang on, I’m sorry. I’d better straighten that out straight away.

COSGROVE: No, no, we’d have nothing to do with any military operations.

COSGROVE: What we’d be doing is wholly and solely humanitarian assistance and reconstruction work. I mean, I’m talking engineers here, not infantry soldiers. That’s a matter for the Indonesians, all the rest of it, and we’d simply be doing things like helping to stand up the fractured infrastructure so- -

MILLER: Fair enough, General, but I mean, given the civil war and the unrest that’s been going on there for a while, and given that I guess, you know, there’s been ceasefire of sorts, if you like, given the enormity of the situation up there, I mean, what – do you look at the possible scenarios, the possible outcomes? I mean, if we’re going to have humanitarian aid up there, surely our people will need protecting as such or will that be a matter for the Indonesian army?

COSGROVE: Look, it’s hypothetical at the outset because our present plan is simply to assist the Indonesians during this immediate emergency. If we’re needed in the future then obviously we would pretty much hope that the environment for our troops would be safe given that their mission would be humanitarian in nature.

But that’s all for the future and, you know, let’s keep our fingers and toes crossed that this will provide a circuit breaker for the Indonesian government to be able to bring about a more enduring peaceful solution in Aceh. But that’s none of our business apart from wishing them well in that regard and in the event that we were there in the future, which is wholly hypothetical, we would, of course, be looking for them to take care of our people.

McCALL: Just in closing, General Cosgrove, it is a massive operation. It’s just an enormous tragedy. What is your specific role on a day to day basis in this respect?

COSGROVE: I’m like every other Aussie. I’m just aghast at the scale of death and destruction but I set that aside and with my senior ADF colleagues we cobbled together the contribution on the military side that Australia will make.

Now, we’re proud to do that because it typifies, I think, what this country has been doing in the fortnight since the tragedy and we’re prepared to do that over the long haul for as long as it takes. So I’m very proud of the young men and women you referred to earlier. I think they are making all Australians very proud of being an Australia at a time when our neighbour’s in desperate trouble.

McCALL: I’m sure you must be very proud of the men and women that we’ve got on the ground up there at the moment. General Peter Cosgrove, thank you very much for your time this morning. We know you’re a busy fellow and we’ll catch up with you again in the not too distant future, hopefully.

COSGROVE: Thanks Dean and Rupert, all the best.

MILLER: Good on you, mate. There he is. He’s a great man, isn’t he, and he’s certainly had his fair share of hurdles since taking on the role that he did a couple of years ago.

McCALL: And in taking on the role, you know, he’s come under fire and criticism in some parts and it goes with the territory, doesn’t it? But when you think, you know, from Timor to Iraq, you know, back to Indonesia and Aceh and the current situation, it is a challenging situation.

MILLER: Yes, Peter Cosgrove. Crazy times all right.