Oliver Peterson: Australian correspondent on the Australian Government pledging to spend $12 billion on expanding AUKUS

The Australian Government is set to pour $12 billion into a submarine and naval shipbuilding facility in Western Australia in a bid to speed up the delivery of AUKUS.

The Trump administration has been pressuring Australia to boost defence spending as the Pentagon reviews the AUKUS deal.

Australian correspondent Oliver Peterson says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is due to meet US officials in New York in the coming days to discuss this further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International Correspondence with Ens and Eye Insurance, Peace of Mind
for New Zealand business. Oliver Peterson sixty our Perth Live
Presenters with US Ali get o'heather. So the spend on
aucast has gone up.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, twelve billion dollars announced by the Prime Minister Anthony
Albernizi while he was here in Perth yesterday. This is
around creating a shipbuilding facility, a defense hub in a
suburb called Henderson, which is about an hour south of Perth. Now,
this is also where they are planning the maintenance of
those submarines once they have been purchased. And he's made
that big announcement before he has jetted off to Port Moresby.

(00:35):
He's currently, as you and I speak right now, Heather
on his way to Papia and New Guinea to celebrate
the fiftieth anniversary of P and g's independence. When that
wraps up on Wednesday, he will continue to fly to
New York, where he is hoping to obviously convince the
US President Donald Trump that UCUST will go ahead. He
is refusing to confirm whether or not he will get
the ear of President Trump while he is in the

(00:57):
United States, but that is his plan. So's I hope
they can finally have a face to face conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Not looking good for the coalition?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Is that? Oh awful? Like these are the worst ever
primary vote statistics that have been released by a newspoll. Ever,
like this is absolutely shocking. It's now down to just
twenty seven percent the coalition. The labor result is fifty
eight percent on that two party question. Susan Lee needs
to turn this ship around quick smart. She's going to
be delivering her first economic addresses the opposition leader. And

(01:26):
why I say that he is quick smart because these
numbers are going to send the Opposition to the irrelevancy
bin for the rest.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Of their lives.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Like that, That is how crucial this is at the moment.
And we know what a week she had having to
dump just into Price last week from her front bench.
This is just agitating the conservative side of her party.
So if she doesn't pull a rabbit out of the
Hatney economic speech and promise all Australians a million dollars each,
she's cactus.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
She's cactus, is she?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yes? Yeah? But she is, Like I realize she's probably
a bench shwarma at the moment. But you can't drift
for this long. I know it's still two and a
half years till the next federal election. But the opposition
stand for nothing, Heather, absolutely nothing. They have no policies
on anything. They're just fighting amongst themselves. They are showing

(02:15):
themselves to be a complete and utter rabble and that
will not be recoverable at all to be in a
competitive in a competitive position when they go to the
federal election.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
That's a fair point Pauline Hanson. So is your thesis
that she's becoming Australia's Nigel Farage.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
And if you look at the poll, she's now just
surged one Nation, is now surged above the Greens, so
she's up to thirteen percent. She hasn't got much further
to go before she knocks off the coalition. Now that
if that isn't a warning sign to the National Party
in the Liberal Party that they are going to have
their pants pulled down by Pauline Hanson and her party.
And she's trying to recruit your seat a price to

(02:53):
one nation. I don't think that'll happen. I don't think
she will be successful. But there is such growing unrest
very quickly in this country and look at what for
she's doing in the UK. He's a heading the polls.
He's been talking about migration over there for god knows
how long. We've got the same issues here in Australia
at the moment that the Coalition are just happy to ignore.
So watch the surge of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party.

(03:15):
I'll be blunt. She's never been able to recruit anybody
else into her party who's any good. So it's just
Pauline Hanson and that is it. But things are changing
in this country rapidly, mark my words.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, brilliant. Hey Ollie, it's always good to talk to you.
Thank you mate. Oliver Peterson, six PR Perth Live Presenter.
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