Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I was only going to be nice to the member for Brisbane anyway, and celebrate her very bipartisan motion, congratulating the member for Batman on his good work in government. It is important that we do not hype up any partisan differences in this chamber when discussing matters of defence. The previous member for Banks was right in that these very brave men and women do give extraordinary service with extraordinary professionalism in a range of tasks in the service of our country. They deserve absolutely the support of this parliament in all its many variations and colours of partisanship that we might find, but we should find common cause celebrating their efforts.

In my own electorate of Wakefield there is RAAF Base Edinburgh, which is a very important military base and has been the home of 92 Wing for a long time. It is a unit that has done a lot of service over the last few years, particularly in border protection and in other areas, which has been very important to the country. It is now home to 7RAR, who, again, have served this country with distinction in places like Afghanistan. It is great to have them in the electorate. They certainly change the colour of the shopping centre, because you see a lot of uniforms around the place. I remember being with the member for Batman opening up the Single LEAP housing, which was a very important series of projects to basically improve service men and women's housing on bases. They were very important projects. I remember being with him and opening the Single LEAP housing project at Edinburgh, which has really updated the accommodation at that base.

We know the government likes to congratulate itself, and I think the member for Batman was talking about pensions and he was about to, I think, point out that from 2017 there are many pensions that are now going to be indexed to CPI only. I have had Leon Eddy, President of TPI Association SA, and Ian Swan in my office last week discussing this matter and worrying about it. We hope that the government, in its presentation of the budget to the Senate, does think clearly about some of the changes they have made, because, of course, they are very serious changes and have a big effect on all those who are on fixed incomes over a period of time.

Nothing can be more damaging for a government to go around the place saying that they have absolutely fulfilled the commitment in one area only to have broken their commitments in another and think that one is somehow a defence of the other. My experience has been that that sort of tortured logic only harms a government and does not help it. You are better off—if I could provide some advice to those opposite—giving up the tortured logic and the broken promises and clearly think about what you are doing to ordinary people in this budget.

These are not the only areas, of course, where defence is important. In my state, the defence industry is particularly important. We have seen the government completely misjudge the importance of shipbuilding to South Australia. This is a vital national capacity. It will become more vital in the future. We are now seeing some great maritime challenges and so it is sensible for this country to have a shipbuilding industry. It is sensible for it not to fall into disrepair. For the government to exclude Australian companies from tendering for the two Navy supply ships—in effect exporting jobs and expertise to places like Spain and South Korea—is foolish in the extreme. We now see the same sort of softening up in terms of the submarine project as well. These are critical issues for South Australia and for jobs in South Australia.

While I commend the member for Brisbane for bringing the motion to the House, this government has got little to be proud of and should look to embrace bipartisan matters.

Debate adjourned.

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