Defending Taiwan against Beijing is a must, says Peter Dutton

Peter Dutton calls it ‘inconceivable’ that Australia would not join the US in defending Taiwan by force, says French would have sunk AUKUS if they’d been told sooner.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton on his Queensland farm this week. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Defence Minister Peter Dutton believes China has no right to ­reclaim Taiwan, and if the US committed forces to defend the embattled island it would be “inconceivable” that Australia, as an alliance partner, would not join in that military action.

In an interview to mark 20 years in parliament, Mr Dutton also said if the French were told earlier about the cancellation of the $90bn submarine contract, they would have pressured the US to withdraw from AUKUS and “probably” would have succeeded in scuttling the nuclear submarine deal.

Reflecting on his leadership challenge to Malcolm Turnbull in 2018, Mr Dutton said he still had an “ambition” to lead the Liberal Party one day and would like to be “in the mix” whenever Scott ­Morrison retired, acknowledging it would “disingenuous” to claim otherwise.

Mr Dutton said his overriding strategic vision for the defence portfolio was to prepare for “the threat of conflict” in the region and dealing with an assertive China by addressing Australia’s “lack of preparedness” and taking “better care” of Australian ­Defence Force personnel.

“(China’s) been very clear about their intent to go into Taiwan and we need to make sure that there is a high level of preparedness, a greater sense of ­deterrence by our capability, and that is how I think we put our country in a position of strength,” Mr Dutton said.

“China is an economic and military superpower. They spend 10 times a year more than what we spend on our defence budget and every 18 months they produce, on a tonnage rate, more by way of military assets than the whole Royal Navy has in her fleet, so the thought that we could compete with China is of course a nonsense. That’s not the question before us; the question is: would we join with the US?

“It would be inconceivable that we wouldn’t support the US in an action if the US chose to take that action. And, again, I think we should be very frank and honest about that, look at all of the facts and circumstances without pre-committing, and maybe there are circumstances where we wouldn’t take up that option, (but) I can’t conceive of those ­circumstances.”

Mr Dutton’s comments came after former prime minister Paul Keating told the National Press Club this week that Taiwan was “not a vital Australian interest”, was not recognised as “a sovereign state” and Australia should not be drawn into a conflict over the island. Mr Dutton lashed Mr Keating as a “grand appeaser”.

Mr Dutton also defended the timing and manner of the cancellation of the $90bn submarine contract with France’s Naval Group to pursue nuclear-powered submarines with the US and Britain. To tell the French earlier, he argued, would have jeopardised the AUKUS partnership.

“If you had have informed the French earlier and they had have made that public and not respected the advice that we had given them, the Americans probably would have pulled out of the deal with the violent reaction from the French,” he said.

“The French would have approached it like that, knowing that they could upset or unsettle the Americans.”

The Defence Minister flatly rejected US President Joe Biden’s claim that the cancellation of the contract and announcement of AUKUS were clumsily handled.

“The US, the UK and Australia had a group of high-level officials working essentially around the clock on this deal,” Mr Dutton said.

“It was choreographed to the minute in terms of when people would be notified by whom and the sequencing was agreed by the three countries.

“So that’s an important point to make. There was a ‘no surprises’ arrangement between the three partners.”

Ahead of an expected virtual summit meeting between Mr Biden and Xi Jinping next week, and as the Chinese President warned of a new cold war, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the Lowy Institute on Thursday there was “no profit in revisiting” the handling of the AUKUS announcement.

Mr Sullivan also said the US preferred “stiff competition” with China that did not need to become “conflict or confrontation”.

Recalling his leadership challenge to Mr Turnbull in 2018, and subsequent narrow defeat by Mr Morrison in a ballot to lead the Liberal Party, Mr Dutton said he had no regrets.

“I regret that I wasn’t able to get another three votes but that is a problem of my own making in not being able to bring enough people together,” he said.

“I honestly believe that we saved the Liberal Party from Malcolm Turnbull and we saved the country from Bill Shorten.

“Malcolm was much further to the left, which is now on display, but every day was a fight for him to keep that in check. He was given the opportunity to continue his prime ministership for longer than it probably should have.”

Mr Dutton said he would still like to lead the Liberal Party one day, and perhaps be prime minister. But he acknowledged that Mr Morrison was not likely to vacate the job in the near future.

“I don’t see Scott Morrison going anywhere anytime soon,” Mr Dutton said.