Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question and thank him for joining me in his electorate on 19 May when we launched the defence health care trial in Cairns. He is a strong supporter of the defence community and he was with me as we delivered on another election promise from the Rudd government. I note also for the member for Leichhardt that, under the Australian government’s nation building for recovery program, there are 236 projects in his electorate, projects that are supporting jobs and small businesses in suburbs such as Woree and Redlynch.

As we know, this is a part of the government’s program of nation building for recovery, supporting jobs, business and infrastructure for Australia’s needs for tomorrow. Of course, we know that, if the Liberals had their way, not a single one of these projects would commence. You would be aware also that, as part of this nation building program and as part of the government’s decisive action, we announced expenditure of $251.6 million in funding for Defence Housing Australia. This is to construct 802 dwellings for Australian Defence Force personnel and their families in metropolitan and regional centres.

I am pleased to be able to announce that DHA have made significant progress since this announcement. Nationwide, over 260 houses have been contracted to date, tenders for over 650 houses have been issued and major site works have begun on over 180 houses. Unfortunately, though, as ever, the opposition has not supported this measure. The following members are significant. The member for Herbert, the member for Hunter, the member for Mayo, the member for Gilmore, the member for Groom, the member for Indi, the member for Flinders and the member for Gippsland all voted against Defence Force families having new homes built in their electorate.

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