Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

History does repeat—wise words from the member for Bass. The Labor governments under Whitlam, Hawke and Keating all saw cuts in defence. Cutting defence is in their DNA. In fact, in the 13 budgets between 1982-82 and 1995-96 Labor cut defence spending by 8.9 per cent in real terms. That is why in opposition we produced the Little book of Labor's defence backflips, which went through in extraordinary and excruciating details all the things Labor cut. The brutal reality of the hollow force bequeathed by successive Labor governments—Rudd, Gillard, Rudd again—laid bare time after time. It was laid bare from the end of the Hawke-Keating era, which we saw in 1999. It is laid bare now. Some say history does not repeat itself. I guarantee you: when it comes to defence and Labor's mismanagement, it repeats itself time and time again.

Labor's custodianship of defence over the last six years is nothing less than scandalous. As a proportion of GDP—and let this hang around their necks as a mark of their shame—defence expenditure fell to 1.56 per cent, not see since 1938. That is what hangs over their heads in abject shame. That is what will be written on their political epitaph, etched in stone how the Labor Party considers the Defence Force. All in all, Labor cut $25 billion of the defence budget, including $5.5 billion in 2012-13 alone. This was the single largest decrease in defence expenditure—a decrease of 10.5 per cent—since the end of the Korean War. These are facts. It is not conjecture. It is not argument. These are statements of fact.

When Labor left office, I think it was Mark Thomson of ASPI said it best when he was quoted in The Age on 14 May:

I was on the record saying that the budget Labor gave [in 2012] left things in an unsustainable mess.

This is Mark Thomson, widely seen across the nation as the best commentator on defence budgets, where the entire national community waits until he produces his thesis on the defence budget to understand exactly the impacts of it, and he quotes Labor's budgeting as 'an unsustainable mess'. Again on 30 May this year he said:

Defence has been under financial pressure for the past few years because of cuts made by the Rudd and Gillard government in a futile attempt to get back into surplus.

That is the frank assessment of probably the most respected commentator for defence financial matters, Mark Thomson of ASPI, someone who is held in high regard and who tells it as it is.

Be under no illusion: the damage inflicted by Labor will take years and years to fix. We promised before the election we would take the budget back to two per cent of GDP within a decade. The problem is that when the Howard government lost government in 2007, the Defence budget was—give or take—near enough to two per cent. It took six wretched years to destroy it and there are 10 long years ahead to put it back again.

For the 2014-15 budget, this government is providing $29.2 billion to Defence and $122.7 billion over the forward estimates. It is $9 million more than Labor provided. The funding includes $436.8 million in 2014-15 and $669.4 million across the forward estimates for the continuation of the operations in the Middle East, enhancing border protection, Operation RESOLUTE and to support the G20.

We have delivered on our commitments taken to the election—every one of them. It is a commendable start to getting back to two per cent of GDP. The ADF Gap Year has started, ADF free housing has started and we have indexed DFRDB, on which I will have more to say. We have, in the first year, put all of our commitments into play. It is a stark contrast to the years of Labor.

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