Kieran Gilbert, host: Welcome back to Newsday. Let's go live to the Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Matt Thistlethwaite. Matt, thanks for your time. It has been quite a few months in the making. The meeting's come and gone. Is there a sense of relief within the official ranks government that it did go smoothly, that meeting with Donald Trump?
Matt Thistlethwaite, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade: G'day, Kieran. We're certainly very pleased with the way the meeting went between the Prime Minister and the President. It has been a long time coming, but I think it was worth the wait in terms of the outcome, obviously, to see that the US administration is fully committed to AUKUS. Full steam ahead, in the words of the President, that's welcoming news for the Australian Defence Force. It means that we can get on with the job of delivering what will be the largest capability uplift in the Australian Defence Forces history. And an historic agreement, a framework agreement between our two nations on rare earths to cooperate on the extraction and processing of critical minerals that are going to be vital to both of our defence forces and to advance technology into the future. So, the perfect meeting between our leaders from our perspective.
Gilbert: When you, when you look at defence spending, the President's been very critical of, of partners, allies like NATO and others really putting the heat on them to lift defence spending. There was a feeling that that might be the case here. Has the government given the President a sneak peek as to what else would be coming in an upcoming defence review that we expect next year? Is there some other information here that we're not privy to publicly?
Assistant Minister: No. We've demonstrated to the President that we have lifted defence spending. We've lifted it by $50 billion over the course of the next decade. And it's resulted in the largest capability uplift that we're going to see in the Australian Defence Forces history through AUKUS, through the missile technology that we'll be able to develop here, an important upgrade to our surface marine fleet. Basically all of the frigates and patrol vessels will be upgraded. And importantly, Kieran, I think we were able to demonstrate to the President the cooperation that's been going on over the last decade between Australia and the United States in terms of the training that we're doing together and the reinforcing of the bases of Australia's Defence Force to the north of Australia. And a lot of that has been to ensure that we can cater for a larger style of US defence aeroplane to be able to operate out of Australia should it need to. And those sort of commitments that we've made, I think, have demonstrated to the US that we have uplifted our capability and we are investing in our defence force.
Gilbert: When it comes to Kevin Rudd, there are those who, like Dennis Richardson, who says that this clears the air. And regardless of what you thought of his previous remarks, advised, ill advised, or however you see Kevin's commentary on Trump previously, Sussan Ley says he should go, the Prime Minister should pull him out of Washington. What's your reaction to that? Should he continue to serve and indeed have his term extended?
Assistant Minister: Well, I don't agree with Sussan. I thought that that was a rather desperate comment. I think that what you want from a good Ambassador is someone that is effective. And I think Kevin Rudd has proven that he's very effective. And that's evident in the organisation that went into the preparation for today's meeting. The behind the scenes work that Kevin Rudd and his team have done, and not only securing the meeting, but also working together with the US administration to put together that framework agreement is pretty important. And it's a historic day for Australia and the United States to be cooperating on an area of industrial policy that is vitally important to the future of our nations in our region is an historic day. And Kevin Rudd deserves some credit for that. I've been in the United States with Kevin Rudd. I've seen the access that he has to both Republican and Democrat congressional leaders, the access he has with civil society, and I think he's doing a great job.
Gilbert: On the praise for the Prime Minister. They're not from the same political stripe, certainly Mr Albanese and Donald Trump, but President Trump, saying he's a great Prime Minister, said he's going to use that, obviously jokingly in his next ad campaign. It's funny how things can move so quickly, given in the last election campaign, Labor was putting the boot into Peter Dutton for being too close to Donald Trump. Now, who's, you know, the best friend of the President of the United States? It's interesting how that has evolved over the last 9 to 10 months.
Assistant Minister: Kieran. Our approach has always been that regardless of who is in the White House, the relationship between Australia and the United States is so fundamental to both of our nations that it's above politics. And I think that for me, that's what really came through today. You're right. Different political stripes, but two great leaders coming together to work together for the betterment. Of both of our nations, particularly the defence and security of our region. And that is above politics.
Gilbert: And I think you say above politics but you didn't mind having a crack at Peter Dutton for being too aligned to Trump or bringing Trumpian sort of policies to Australia. That was pretty, pretty clear during the election campaign.
Assistant Minister: Well, Peter Dutton determined his policies and we determined our policies and we were very happy to stand at the election on our policies. And I think it was the fact that Peter Dutton had opposed our tax cuts, that he promised to cancel people working from home. They were the reasons why Peter Dutton lost the last election. We were very happy to stand on our policies and thankfully they've been endorsed by the Australian people. And now our focus is just getting on with the job and delivering those policy outcomes.
Gilbert: Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Matt Thistlethwaite, thanks. We'll talk to you soon. Appreciate it.
Assistant Minister: Thanks Kieran.