Q: Prime Minister, there’s concern in Washington about your reluctance to talk about using an attack submarines against China. I quote one of the expert there ‘ if you want to deter conflict in peacetime you need to talk about it using it in wartime and we haven’t seen a willingness on the part of the Australians’. Why won’t you talk about it?

Albanese:

I have no idea who you’re quoting.

Reporter:

I’ll tell you. It’s US Navy strategist Bryan Clark and he’s advising the Australian Defence Force on the design of the submarines.

Albanese:

We want – if people think that it’s a good idea to want anything other than security in our region, one of the things that we’re doing is investing in our assets, we’re investing in our assets so we’re more secure.

Obviously, you have assets there as deterrence. The great benefit of nuclear-powered submarines, as I have spoken about many times, the reason why the Government supports them is because of their stealth capacity, because they can stay under water for longer, they don’t have to snort, they don’t have to come up as often, they are a strategic asset of which everyone is aware. So the idea that it is in everyone’s interests to talk up war which is what you’re inviting me to do is, in my view, not the responsible thing for the Prime Minister of Australia to do.