Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the assistant minister for his opening remarks. I do have a question for the assistant minister, but I will put it into a little bit of context first. I would first like to put on the record my thanks for the wonderful work that the men and women of our ADF do in securing the defence of this nation in a variety of theatres around the world but also here onshore. I think that they do a tremendous, tremendous job.

In light of that, it is sad—as the Assistant Minister for Defence has touched on—to see that degradation of funding and capability for our Defence Force over the past six years. Could the minister please, given Labor's failed history of budgetary decisions in relation to Defence, explain how releasing a 10-year capability review for our Defence Force is going to help build and restore not only the confidence of the Australian people in our Defence Force but more importantly restore the confidence of our serving men and women? That is, restore their capability to carry out their duty and the capability of Defence to do what needs to do to protect this nation and help others around the world, as we do in many strategic partnerships.

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