Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak about the Exercise Northern Shield 2016 which occurred in Broome and Derby in my electorate over the past fortnight, finishing up last Friday. The Exercise Northern Shield 2016 was an Australian Defence Force program that saw Army, Navy and Air Force personnel from all around Australia deployed quickly in response to a simulated security threat. I am very impressed that the Turnbull government has had such a great initiative in regional Australia but particularly that it was held in my electorate of Durack.

This year's event was not the first time that the Exercise Northern Shield was held in the north-west, with Learmonth being home to the event only last year, further illustrating that the north-west is indeed a Defence priority. The Northern Shield involved a wide range of capabilities and equipment from the different areas of the ADF. I know many people from the north-west, particularly Broome and Derby, were absolutely thrilled to view the event firsthand. There were 1,200 ADF personnel who participated in this year's event, with personnel coming from bases all around Australia, such as Darwin, Townsville, Sydney and Canberra. I thank Colonel Andrew Abbott and his team for the briefing they provided me in Derby last week.

I am particularly proud of the Broome and Derby communities for their very warm welcome to the exercise participants, which I have no doubt contributed to the success of the event. The communities and I, however, have one complaint: we would have liked them to stay longer!

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