Press Conference - Kirribilli, NSW
24 February 2022
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, everyone. Once again, our thoughts are with Ukraine and the people of Ukraine. Our thoughts this morning are also with the 38,000 Australians of Ukrainian descent who are rightly very concerned about their loved ones, their family, their friends who are in Ukraine and face the threats of intimidation and violence from a nation in Russia that is seeking to bully them to their own ends. I just returned from meeting of the Executive Council with the Governor-General where my government signed the amendments to the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations, which enables us to use the legislation, which provides the framework to target sanctions against individuals. And I stress individuals who are in a situation where they are able to support a regime and act in the interests of Russia to the ends that they are supporting the measures that we're seeing in the Ukraine.
This is important legislation, it is targeted legislation. It adds a whole new tool to our toolkit when it comes to dealing with this illegal, unlawful behaviour. And it's a tool that we're implementing in partnership with our allies and like minded countries, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom. This will be the first tranche of measures that we expect to take. We are taking actions against eight members of Russia's Security Council, a series of banks and financial institutions that I indicated yesterday, and extending existing sanctions on the transport, energy, telecommunications and oil and gas and mineral sectors to Donetsk and Luhansk. As I said, this is giving us the scope to cover people and entities of strategic and economic significance to Russia. So that gives us a broad remit in order to take targeted action. So the sanctions we have put in place aren't just traditionally what you would have seen in the past against a nation more broadly. This goes direct to those individuals who are at the heart of this bullying and aggressive behaviour. It targets their financial interests. It prevents them from travelling. It stops them from moving money around. It stops them from coming and having holidays in countries such as Australia or going shopping in Harrods or doing things of that nature and trying to live their lives as if they had nothing to do with the violence and bullying and intimidation that they are supporting from the Russian regime. The sanctions will become law tomorrow, and they will take effect at the end of March. Now this is important on the legislation because that gives the opportunities for businesses that have had very legitimate operations and business interests in Russia and in the affected territories of Ukraine to be able to make changes to their arrangements. So these are significant sanctions, but we obviously have to give Australian companies and individuals the time to go and make changes to their arrangements in an orderly way. We are working very closely, especially with the United States and the United Kingdom on our list, and our list is longer than the eight that I've just mentioned, and we'll be working closely to develop the cases that will enable us to take further actions against others. And we won't hesitate when we're in possession of that information to take that extra step. We have already had a wider package of sanctions on persons and entities and in reserve. And should Russia choose to escalate its illegal and unlawful conduct in the eastern Ukraine.
Now, I note that many have said, do you think that this will lead to Russia pulling back? I would hope so, but I don't expect so. The reason we're doing this is there must be a price for the unprovoked, unlawful, unwarranted, unjustified attacks and threats and intimidation that is being imposed by Russia on Ukraine. This cannot be a consequence free action by Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime, and it should send a message to any other regime in the world that if you go down this path, if you seek to coerce and bully others, then the world should stand together in targeting those who are directly at the centre of these activities. And this is incredibly important. There must be consequences for violent, coercive and bullying behaviour.
And last night, I spoke with the Ukrainian Prime Minister to reaffirm our unwavering commitment, unwavering commitment. to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and denounced Russia's aggressive behaviour towards Ukraine. The Prime Minister was deeply grateful for two things. First of all, obviously our support for them and the rule of international law and the protections that should afford them. But equally, he was very appreciative of the support and encouragement that was being provided by the Australian people and the support for the people of Ukrainian descent in Australia. And with around 40,000 Australians of Ukrainian descent, and he also shared my view that this isn't an issue about the Russian people, there are more than 80,000 Australians of Russian descent here in Australia. And I want to send them a very clear message. I understand that so many of you, if not all of you, would be equally appalled by the actions of what we see the Russian government do in Ukraine, and all Australians are united, whether they be Russian or Ukrainian descent. That's why they have come to Australia because Australia is a country that values the rule of law and does not bully or coerce our neighbours. And in fact, we stand up to those who do so. I was also able to update the Prime Minister of our immediate action on sanctions, which he welcomed on the banks and organisations, and he was appreciative of the support that they've provided, particularly in the cyber domain.
We discussed a number of other issues about Australia can be helpful. One of the particular issues that I discussed with him was the actions we've taken at the Ukrainian citizens who are currently in Australia, and he was appreciative that we will be extending the visas by six months of those whose visas will conclude by the 30th of June. So that provides the room in the space for those who are in Australia to remain. The second point was that we have put to the top of the pile all Ukrainian applications for visas to come to Australia with some 430 outstanding visa applications, and the Immigration Minister is addressing those as a matter of priority. He also spoke of the support we're prepared to provide in concert with other countries in relation to displaced persons and other humanitarian support that may be necessary. Later today, the Minister for Immigration, Alex Hawke, will be meeting with members of the Ukrainian community here in Australia to further discuss any issues of concern to them. And I spoke to the leader of the committee yesterday, Mr Stefan Romaniw yesterday on those matters.
I also want to make a few comments about the statements made by the Russian Ambassador. The Russian Ambassador was called in yesterday to speak to the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I completely reject the assertions that were made by the Russian Ambassador. The suggestion that somehow Russian soldiers crossing the border and entering eastern Ukraine are peacekeepers is deeply offensive to anyone who's pulled on a uniform as a peacekeeper anywhere in the world which Australia has done right across the world, and as so many countries in the Pacific have as well. They're not peacekeepers, they're invaders. And that's how we see it, and we'll call it out. If they don't like it, that's tough. There is no justification for Russia's aggression in Ukraine, and any attempt to try and create some pretext for it is offensive.
Finally, on the issue of cyber security, there has been an historical pattern of cyber attacks against Ukraine, and that continues now. Malicious cyber activity. Of course, as I said yesterday, it could impact Australian organisations through unintended disruption or uncontained malicious cyber activities and the Australian Cyber Security Centre is not aware of any current or specific threats against Australian organisations, but are adopting an enhanced cyber security posture and have been for some time now, and increased monitoring of threats will help to reduce impacts to Australian organisations. The Australian Cyber Security Centre recommends that organisations urgently adopt an enhanced cyber security posture. This should include reviewing and enhancing detection, mitigation and response measures. Organisations should ensure that logging and detection systems in their environment are fully updated and functioning, and apply additional monitoring to their networks where required. Organisations should also assess their preparedness to respond to any cyber security incidents and should review incident response and business continuity plans. And Cyber Security Centre strongly recommends organisations implement essential eight mitigation strategies from the ACSC's strategies to mitigate cyber security incidents as a baseline. That baseline, known as ‘the essential eight’, makes it harder for adversaries to compromise their systems, and you can visit cyber.gov.au for more advice. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what confidence do you have that any further sanctions will deter Putin?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, as I said before, I don't necessarily expect it to deter an authoritarian, autocratic leader, which is intent on taking opportunity to pursue their own interests by violating another country's borders. Someone who's prepared to do that, and has clearly been preparing to do that for some time, I doubt it necessarily will step back as a result of sanctions being imposed. But you do them because anyone who seeks to do this must face a cost and there will be a cost to Russia's actions. And that's why I continue to stress that it's important for all countries around the world to denounce this behaviour, to join other countries in imposing these sanctions and to apply a very severe cost, particularly on those directly benefiting from this violent behaviour and ensure that they've got no place to run and no place to hide any country that is allowing those who are at the heart of perpetrating this to be able to go about their lives and spend their money, make investments, do all of that is only encouraging this behaviour and they'll get no comfort here in Australia.
JOURNALIST: How much are the sanctions expected to impact Australian businesses, do you know how much investment we have with Russia? And Rex Patrick came out this morning and said diplomats are conducting intelligence operations out of the Russian Embassy. Why not expel some of those given the cyber threats, if not the Ambassador?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, on the first point out, our trade with Russia is actually quite minor compared to many other countries in making the decisions yesterday, the Treasury Secretary attended that meeting and gave us advice that we could impose these sanctions with minimal impact on Australian businesses, but it is important, as I said under the Autonomous Sanctions Legislation, that there's a period of time for businesses to make adjustments to their arrangements as appropriate. So we are not overly concerned when it comes to the direct impact of our supplies, why? Because sanctions are intended to impact those they're directed towards, not towards those who are imposing them. That's the point of sanctions and how they are conducted and the most potent form of those sanctions are the targeted ones to the individuals. That is now possible because of the stronger laws my government has passed to enable us to do just that. Now I've seen this sort of commentary that have come from others who don't sit in national security committees of cabinet and don't have the benefit of the intelligence and advice and information and staged responses that the government is engaged in. They're at liberty to make their contributions in their comments. But I would simply say that Australia will continue to take a very careful strategic and staged response to this crisis. We've got plenty left in the tank when it comes to further actions that we would take if and when the violence is escalated by Russia. So we will continue, I think, to follow a very disciplined path on this, not a reactive path. We have been discussing this with our partners and allies for some time now, and we will be in lockstep with them in terms of how we go forward.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] sanctions earlier would have prevented [inaudible] to this point both for Australia and our allies?
PRIME MINISTER: No, not necessarily. I wouldn't say that. Again, sanctions are intended to impose a cost on their behaviour. It is pretty clear, I think to those who had access to the information that we have had access to could draw anything other than the conclusion that President Putin has been intent on this action for some considerable time and that his face is very much set towards this action. That only should strengthen our resolve to impose a heavy cost and a heavy burden and not just for the moment, but over time.
JOURNALIST: So what would those further sanctions potentially look like if we were to go to that next stage?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, if I was in a position to be announcing what they were, I'd be doing that. I tend not to telegraph what our next actions are. I can assure you that we are we have all options on the table when it comes to our diplomatic and other economic sanctions.
JOURNALIST: On like minded countries, Prime Minister, India hasn't said boo. They're remaining neutral, there will be no sanctions. They're a Quad partner of ours. Are you concerned that the Indians might be through a lack of action, aiding and abetting or encouraging, in your words, Vladimir Putin?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I certainly wouldn't refer to them in the same context that I've made remarks about China. I mean, China joined up, voted with Russia in the National Security Council of the UN. India did not do that. And the debate that China and Russia voted to prevent, proceeded and it was not obstructed by India. All countries have different levels of engagement with Russia, other countries in our own region. And so I'm respectful of that. But my position, though, is very, very clear. I think it's important for like-minded countries to be taking the strongest possible action because one day it's a country like Russia threatening the border and seeking to invade Ukraine. And the next day it could be countries in our own region seeking to do the same thing. So my response and Australia's response will always be principled and consistent.
JOURNALIST: On the issue of cyber security, without going into operational matters. Do you feel that the government has the legislative and regulatory framework settings right to allow it to assist private holders of critical infrastructure, banks and telcos, that sort of thing to fend off cyber attacks should they come in a more concerted fashion from Russia?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, certainly the enhancements and the strengthening of those laws that we've put in place under our critical infrastructure legislation, and there are further tranches of that will continue to strengthen that position. Cyber security threats are a constantly escalating task. And so that job is never complete. John Howard used to talk about issues that have an ever receding finishing line. Well, I would put cyber, dealing with the cyber threat, certainly in that category. That's why you want a government that takes it seriously, that takes the initiative that doesn't hesitate in strengthening these laws, which we have always been prepared to do. We set up the critical infrastructure. We reformed our foreign investment rules. We put the tools and enforcement sanctions in place. We called out malicious cyber activity by state actors, by non-state actors, by organised criminals. And we built our capability through our investment in the Australian Cyber Security Centre and a cyber strategy to equip Australian companies as well as government instrumentalities. We briefed state and territory governments constantly about the risks and threats to their own institution and assets. But I would say it's an issue in which we need to be increasingly constantly vigilant.
JOURNALIST: Where do you expect petrol prices to go as a result of this?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, our advice from the International Energy Agency is we do expect there to be a short term and they say, a temporary impact on world oil prices. And I think that is to be expected with the uncertainty and instability that you follow an event of this magnitude that there is nothing to suggest at the moment that would necessarily be a prolonged event, but that could change. I mean oil prices, as we know they go up, they go down. And for many other reasons, those events pretty much completely outside of control of the Australian Government well, in terms of what happens to world oil prices. But we are working with other partners about what collective action that we can take in relation to oil prices and mitigating the shocks that can occur. That's on the issue of of oil prices.
But I would note that our gas security mechanism and the memorandum that we have for the required supply of gas into the Australian domestic market has proved highly effective, highly effective in keeping gas prices in Australia under control to the tune of up to about 75 per cent lower than they might have otherwise been. As a result of what we're seeing in Europe, what does that mean? That means electricity prices are lower. What does that mean? It means that the price of gas feedstock going into manufacturing is lower, which means those businesses which could otherwise be completely overwhelmed by such a surge in gas prices and put them at great risk have been able to continue their operations and remain highly competitive. And so we are monitoring the impacts on obviously on energy prices and working with the IEA. And Minister Taylor will have a bit more to say about that later today. But you know, there are some things within Australia's control and we're taking action on those. The ACCC, for example, is already tasked and they already have the powers and laws and have had more powers and more laws to strengthen their arm provided by this government than any other. And anyone who seeks to exploit or take opportunity from rising oil prices at the bowser on consumers, well they can expect the ACCC to respond to them, I think very quickly.
JOURNALIST: The Ukraine Council for New South Wales has said Australia should provide lethal military assistance to Kiev. At what point would something like that be considered?
PRIME MINISTER: That's not under contemplation by Australia. Never has been, never been requested. The support that we provide in relation to that type of assistance is done a long way away from Ukraine. It doesn't involve the deployment of those types of forces and never would be in that context. Thank you very much, everyone.
