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

I thank the member for Ryan for her very good and insightful question.

The joint strike fighter—the Lightning II—is the most advanced fifth-generation fighter the world has ever seen. In working with our other nine partners across the world, 10 nations will be taking delivery of this aircraft. That will be somewhere around 3½ thousand planes—it goes up and down as different countries vary their intake of jets. We are not just buying a plane that is an orphan; we are buying into the most sophisticated platform available for an advanced fifth-generation fighter. We are talking seriously significant fighter power in terms of flying computers, if you like; an ability not to be seen, but to see a long way out. This is about ensuring our legacy for the future.

It is a legacy based on some sound decisions. The Howard government began this program. When it looked like the program was not going to meet its time lines, it made a strategic decision to buy the Super Hornet. The Minister for Defence, the Honourable Brendan Nelson, made that decision, and he was vilified and rubbished by the Labor government, can I say. But they made a tough decision, a decision that the past Labor government then acknowledged begrudgingly was indeed the right one to ensure that there was no capability gap.

We have recently made the decision to buy a further tranche of 58 fighters to bring the total number up to 72, completely consistent with our election commitment and election promise. This is what good alliance partners do and good purveyors of the public purse when it comes to Defence. We make a promise; we stick by it. We say to our alliance partners, 'We will stump up with you in the development of this', and we have done it. Subsequently, Australian companies now have access to a whole range of opportunities to produce supporting gear and bits and pieces for the aircraft. Currently, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of work, with extensive work still coming, is available for those with the Joint Strike Fighter program. It is a quick decision, it is a sound decision, it will uphold our combat capability in the air for the decades to come, and we as a government are very proud of it.

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