Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Herbert for his question, and I say to the 3½ thousand defence personnel in Townsville that they have no stronger advocate in this country than the member for Herbert. If there is anything in particular that they want me to know, he will transmit that directly to me.

The first responsibility of any government is the defence of the country, the defence of Australia. All the people on this side of the House—and, I suspect, former senator Phil Graham—know this only too well. There are two things that are required if you are going to be well equipped to defend your country. The first is that you have to have political will. There has to be a determination to ensure that Defence is well equipped and well ahead of the technological and strategic changes throughout the world. The second thing you need is money.

When this government came to office in 1996, 10 years ago, we had at that stage a defence force where only 42 per cent of our troops were combat ready. Today it is 62 per cent. We had a $10.3 billion deficit. We had serious problems with our submarines, given to us by a Labor government. What this government did in consolidating the finances of the country and to make sure that Australia had a strong economy was to make sure that Australia spent less than it earned. But the one area that was not reduced in expenditure at all was defence. At that time, this coalition, the Howard government, transferred through efficiency programs some $900 million from the tail of Defence, from the back-end offices, to the front end of Defence.

The government’s vision for Defence was set out in a white paper in 2000, and over the 10-year period we committed to spending an extra $28½ billion on defence capability. We have already rolled out an additional $7 billion and that means, in plain language, almost 60 Abrams heavy tanks as well as unmanned aerial vehicles. We are also going to build three Australian air warfare destroyers. We are committed to building and purchasing two amphibious ships, which will carry up to 1,000 troops. We are also committed to 140 defence capability projects as a result of this.

This government is also determined to strengthen our Army. In December last year we announced a $1½ billion increased investment in the Australian Army to make sure that it is mobile, that it can protect and that it also has significant fire power—something that the Leader of the Opposition certainly does not have in relation to the member for Hotham or the member for Corio. The one thing that is absolutely certain is that this government, under no circumstances, will be spooked by a political party of Paris Hiltons into doing anything other than making sure that the defence of Australia, the security of our region and the commitment to our international strategic interests are our No. 1 priority.

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