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

The $16 billion ripped out also helps with that shrinking. We have been rebuilding the Defence budget. We have been rebuilding the number of fighting force members. We are adding more than 1½ thousand over the next few years. We are adding an extra 1,000 in terms of the gap year. When you look at those increases in personnel, you start to get an idea of where the personnel budget is going to.

And if it were not enough to highlight the politicking of Labor in this area, perhaps someone forgot to tell the Leader of the Opposition that in the coming year there are going to be 27 pay periods. That is an extra quarter of a billion dollars. When we pay people in Defence every fortnight it is a lot of money. An extra pay period is an extra quarter of a billion dollars. That does not seem like a lot of money to the Labor opposition because they are used to pulling $16 billion out. I say to the Leader of the Opposition: instead of politicking, why don't you simply stand up today sir and apologise to the Defence men and women for the $16 billion your government pulled out?

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