Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

It is a little galling to hear the member for Canberra talking about Defence Force cuts. Let me just read the figures from the last few years. In 2011-12 there were 1000 Defence APS positions cut. In 2012-13 there were 1000 Defence APS positions cut. In 2013-14 there were 800 Defence APS positions cut. That adds up to 2800 Defence APS jobs cut by the Labor Party when in government. That is the record in so far as that is concerned.

We are doing a couple of things. First of all, we are not ripping $16 billion out of the forward estimates in Defence. We have had the First Principles Review, which was headed by David Peever and included amongst its membership former general Peter Leahy, former coalition defence minister Robert Hill, former Labor finance minister Lindsay Tanner and Mr Jim Mcdowell, one of the best known and most expert people involved in the defence industries in Australia and overseas. He is the former head of BAE Systems here in Australia and in Saudi Arabia, as I recall.

That First Principles Review is about ensuring that we have the best corporate structure for the Defence Force on the civilian side in the future. That review reported to the government about three or four months ago. We have put in place an implementation plan, which is being drafted at the present time. That plan is expected to be completed by the end of this month, in just over a week or so. Then, from early July we will be implementing that plan for the structure according to the Peever review.

In addition to that, I have kept in place the review team headed by Mr Peever and I have added one more member to it. That will report to me on a regular basis as to the implementation of the review of Defence. Through that process we hope that we will have a better Defence program in place as far as Defence is concerned into the future.

In addition to that, we are progressing the Defence white paper, which is expected to be published in August of this year. That work has been underway for almost a year now, and I would like to pay tribute publicly to my predecessor, Senator Johnston, for the work that he did both in starting the Defence white paper process and in starting the First Principles Review of Defence.

The Defence white paper will set out a number of things, which will go ultimately to the number of people in the ADF both on the civilian and military sides. It will set out the strategic challenges facing Australia over the next 20 years to the extent that we can envisage what they are. It will put in place a Defence Force structure—what the acquisition purchases we need over the next 20 years are, whether they be submarines, future frigates and assets and equipment we need for the Navy, or the Joint Strike Fighter for the Air Force, so that we have those in place in the future. There will be a defence industry plan as part of this white paper, and it will be very much looking to set up the future of Defence for the next 20 years. Ultimately, we seek to align three things. One is our national aspiration. What do we want to do as far as the defence of this nation is concerned? Is it to send personnel to Iraq or Afghanistan, which I spoke about earlier, or is it to send them on a humanitarian mission to Vanuatu or wherever a natural disaster occurs? That is our national aspiration. That has to be lined up with the capability to deliver on that national aspiration, which goes to the equipment, the assets, that we have to deliver on that. It also goes very much to the training of the personnel involved and that the professionalism that we have in the defence forces continues into the future. It also means the enablers—the communication system, the cyber ability that we have in the future—all have to be there. The third thing that has to align—and this is where Labor fell down in the past—is there has to be the funding to provide for that capability. Those three things, which I call the trinity as far as defence is concerned—

Mrs Prentice interjecting—

I will not go so far as to call it the Holy Trinity, Member for Ryan. That defence trinity—aspiration, aligning with capability, aligning with funding—is what a government has to achieve. That is what we are determined to do. It was a failure in the past under the Labor Party, frankly, because they ripped out money from defence. We have to put it back on track.

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